Researchers Use Lasers For Cooling 132
MatthewVD writes "Infrared cameras on satellites and night vision goggles could soon use lasers to cool their components. According to the study published in Nature, researchers in Singapore were able to cool the semiconductor cadmium sulfide from 62 degrees fahrenheit to -9 degrees by focusing a green laser on it and making it fluoresce and lose energy as light. Since they require neither gas nor moving parts, they can be more compact, free from vibration and not prone to mechanical failure."
I may finally install lights in my PC (Score:4, Insightful)
I seen some cool case mods with glowing lights, now they could actually serve a propose! Neat.
Use SI units for reporting science (Score:5, Insightful)
The scientists used SI units all the way through in their paper (Kelvin for temperature), and they would have been laughed out of court and certainly not published in Nature if they'd done otherwise.
Why does Slashdot even accept a submission in Fahrenheit when the subject is science? Most nerds understand SI units, and most of the planet is metric. How about trying to be a bit educational for the few that don't? Quote both if you're trying to be helpful, with the SI units as primary for science reporting and imperial equivalents only in brackets.
Re:Pff (Score:5, Insightful)
Been saying lasers are cool for ages, but do they listen to me? Nooo...
So I'm out with the astronomy club with all our cool glass and tubes and stuff and have people looking at Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, M-13, fun stuff like that there. Someone asks, "Which star is Sirius?" I pull out my laser pointer and show them. Little kid says, "Whoa! That's COOL! Mom! Buy me one!"
I tell the mother, "No, do not buy him one. Laser is not toy. Can blind himself or a friend with it. Under no circumstances should you buy him a laser. Buy him a UV flashlight to look at centipedes or something."
Lasers are cool, but only for grown up kids.
Re:Might work ? (Score:4, Insightful)
Presumably the system would be completely self contained. Neither the laser nor the fluorescing being visible. Maybe we can think of the fluorescing as a mechanism to conduct heat from the electronic components to the case of the NVG. Of course that would heat up the NVG case but perhaps it is not emitting in the iR anymore than the person's face underneath it. More info is needed.
I've seen multiple posts like this one, and they all seem to be missing a huge point (maybe I'm getting trolled? ... or maybe I'm completely wrong).
From the article (sorry, I read it):
"...starting from 290 kelvin. We use a pump laser with a wavelength of 514 nanometres, and obtain an estimated cooling efficiency of about 1.3 per cent and an estimated cooling power of 180 microwatts."
Where the hell is all the heat going if you stick this thing inside some goggles with the direct purpose of cooling something inside said goggles? That question has nothing to do with the above quote... it's there to drive it home - look at how inefficient this process is!?! I'm sure it's extremely useful and interesting for a great many cases, but I don't see (pun) how this is good for night vision goggles.
I keep picturing a guy on a sailboat blowing really hard on his sail.