A New Direction for Thermoelectric Cooling

Materials in which heat flows perpendicular to an electric current could lead to better devices for cooling electronics.

Solid-state cooling devices exploit the thermoelectric effect, in which electric current induces heat flow in the same or opposite direction as the current. In Physical Review Letters, researchers propose that materials in which positive and negative charges move at an angle to each other can transport heat perpendicular to the current. If they prove practical, such materials could lead to compact new designs and to devices that cool electronics to lower temperatures than is currently possible.