Emerging idea of cooling of nanoscale Computer chips by Crystals

Researchers at the Carnegie Institution have discovered a new efficient way to pump heat using crystals. The crystals can pump or extract heat, even on the nanoscale, so they could be used on computer chips to prevent overheating or even meltdown, which is currently a major limit to higher computer speeds.

Researchers at the University of Chicago performed the preliminary simulations on ferroelectric crystals materials that have electrical polarization in the absence of an electric field. The electrical polarization can be reversed by applying an external electrical field. The scientists found that the introduction of an electric field causes a giant temperature change in the material, dubbed the electrocaloric effect (a phenomenon in which a material shows a reversible temperature change under an applied electric field), far above a temperature to a so-called paraelectric state.

The electrocaloric effect pumps heat through changing temperature by way of an applied electric field. The effect has been known since the 1930s, but has not been exploited because people were using materials with high transition temperatures. So low transition temperature materials are preferred, as in that way, the effect is larger if the ambient temperature is well above the transition temperature,

Ferroelectrics become paraelectric, that is, have no polarization under zero electric field above their transition temperature, which is the temperature at which a material changes its state from ferroelectric to paraelectric.

 
Scientists used atomic-scale molecular dynamics simulations, where they followed the behavior of atoms in the ferroelectric lithium niobate as functions of temperature and an electrical field.