| Microrefrigerator
Details |
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Current flow through
a junction between a normal metal and a superconductor removes energy from
the former and deposits it in the latter. Intuitively, this transfer
of energy occurs because the hottest electrons in the normal metal
are the most likely to enter the superconductor. This unusual effect
can be exploited to build a solid-state refrigerator. We are currently
developing devices for NASA which we hope will provide a compact and reliable
means of cooling detectors to temperatures near 0.1 K from a bath temperature
of 0.3 K.
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