It’s been discovered that electrons can be cooled to near absolute zero temperatures in a unique way - by using light! By shining light onto a material composed of semiconductor nanowires, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have found that electrons can be cooled to temperatures as low as 7 millikelvin. This breakthrough could open the door to new technologies that require extremely cold temperatures, such as quantum computing and ultra-sensitive detectors. The technique developed by the researchers involves shining light onto a semiconductor nanowire which is held in a magnetic field. As the light is absorbed by the nanowire, its electrons are cooled due to the slowing down of their thermal motion. This cooling effect is unique and could have a wide range of applications in the future.

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source: Phys.org