Researchers Use Lasers For Cooling

MatthewVD writes "Infrared cameras on satellites and night vision goggles could soon use lasers to cool their components. According to the study published in Nature, researchers in Singapore were able to cool the semiconductor cadmium sulfide from 62 degrees fahrenheit to -9 degrees by focusing a green laser on it and making it fluoresce and lose energy as light. Since they require neither gas nor moving parts, they can be more compact, free from vibration and not prone to mechanical failure."

Comments

temperature in celsius

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry about hijacking this thread, but nobody seems to have posted the temperatures in a proper scale yet, so here we go:

Researchers in Singapore were able to cool the semiconductor cadmium sulfide from 17 degrees Celsius to -23 degrees

Re:Rubidium

[Noughmad]

No, this is different. What you describe is called Doppler cooling and is basically "slowing down" the atoms/ions.

TFA, on the other hand, talks about using a laser to cause fluorescence in the material. It's a completely different principle.