Lasers Are Even Cooler Than We Thought
Scientists at Denmark’s Niels Bohr Institute have figured out a cool new way to lower the temperature of hot semiconductors. In a seemingly paradoxical new study, the scientists showed that light from a laser caused the temperature of semiconductor material to drop–and not by just a few degrees. The temperature fell to -269 Celsius – close to absolute zero. The research is considered a breakthrough in optomechanics, the interaction between light and mechanical movement, and it may be essential for the what scientists see as a coming revolution in quantum computers.