Saturday 19 July 2014

New nanoscale cooling element works in electrical insulators as well

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The sample used for the measurement. In the middle, from top to bottom, is the platinum strip. Electrons move through this strip and produce a spin current in the direction of the underlying insulator. The spins of the electrons that reach the boundary ensure that the spins in the insulator become excited. Two zigzag shaped thermometers made from platinum and constantan measure the temperature difference close to the boundary. Credit: Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) Researchers from the FOM Foundation, the University of Groningen, Delft University of Technology and Tohoku University in Japan have designed a miniscule cooling element that uses spin waves to transport heat in electrical insulators. The cooling element could be used to dissipate heat in the increasingly smaller electrical components of computer chips. The researchers published their design online on 7 July 2014 in Physical Review Letters. The functioning of the cooling element is based on the spin of the electrons. Spin is a fundamental property of an electron that corresponds with its magnetic moment (the strength and direction of its magnetic field). Although physicists have used spin for cooling purposes before, this is the first time that they have successfully done this in insulating materials. Read more at: Phys.org

The post New nanoscale cooling element works in electrical insulators as well has been published on Technology Org.

 
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