In a finding that runs counter to a common assumption in physics, researchers at the University of Michigan ran a light emitting diode (LED) with electrodes reversed in order to cool another device mere nanometers away.
The approach could lead to new solid-state cooling technology for future microprocessors, which will have so many transistors packed into a small space that current methods can't remove heat quickly enough.
"We have demonstrated a second method for using photons to cool devices," said Pramod Reddy, who co-led the work with Edgar Meyhofer, both professors of mechanical engineering.
The first—known in the field as laser cooling—is based on the foundational work of Arthur Ashkin, who shared the Nobel prize in Physics in 2018.
The researchers instead harnessed the chemical potential of thermal radiation—a concept more commonly used to explain, for example, how a battery works.
"Even today, many assume that the chemical potential of radiation is zero," Meyhofer said. "But theoretical work going back to the 1980s suggests that under some conditions, this is not the case."
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