EAGER: CRYO: New Quantum Elastocaloric Demagnetization Refrigeration for the Millikelvin Range

EAGER：CRYO：毫开尔文范围内的新型量子弹热退磁制冷

• 批准号: 2233149
• 负责人: Menka Jain
• 金额: $ 23.74万
• 依托单位: University of Connecticut
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-01-15 至 2024-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2233149&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; CRYO; New; Quantum; Elastocaloric

This project is jointly supported by the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems and the Division of Materials Research.There is a growing demand to develop alternative refrigeration technology that can cool below 1 Kelvin for supporting emerging applications, such as quantum sensors and quantum computers. Currently, liquid helium refrigerators are mostly used to reach temperatures below 1 Kelvin. Due to the increasing scarcity of helium and lack of portability or scalability of the current technologies, alternative cooling methods are of great interest. Solid-state refrigeration technology, such as the one in which magnetic solid materials are cooled via cycles of decreasing and increasing magnetic field has been somewhat successful in partly replacing helium technology. However, it has significant drawbacks, including high magnetic field requirement of several Tesla. This project puts forward a low-field cooling technology based on mechanically strained solid-state magnetic materials. This approach is projected to be sustainable, portable, and deployed at the electronic chip level, providing a route to scalability. During this project, a diverse group of students will be trained in thermal, material and quantum sciences. This training will be provided through the development of a new curriculum focusing on low temperature cooling in advanced undergraduate teaching laboratory, in research projects through the McNair program for underrepresented undergraduate students and through graduate-level research projects. Summer research opportunities will be provided for local high school teachers to develop educational demos in modern thermal science as a quantum-supporting area of research.The overarching goal of the high-risk high-reward work propose here, which is jointly supported by the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems and the Division of Materials Research, is to realize a new solid-state millikelvin Quantum Elastocaloric Adiabatic Refrigeration technology in which a cooling cycle will be achieved via periodic application of elastic strain/stress, without or with small magnetic field. In this project, elastic stress/strain tuning will be used to induce near-zero temperature phase transitions in a special type of magnetic materials called frustrated magnets. Thus, this new method is expected to provide cooling well below 1 Kelvin with high efficiency. To evaluate thin films, single crystals and bulk ceramics of frustrated magnets, an array of uniquely adapted characterization tools for materials under strain will be employed: superconducting quantum interference device microscopy, thermal imaging, ac heat capacity, magnetization etc. The proposed strain-driven cooling technology is expected to provide superior cooling power and lower temperature in comparison to some other solid-state cooling technologies. The Quantum Elastocaloric Adiabatic Refrigeration approach has the potential to materialize into a groundbreaking discovery replacing other platforms, in particular in low magnetic field and on-chip scalable applications and may have transformational impact on energy-efficient electronics, quantum computing and sensing.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目得到化学，生物工程，环境和运输系统以及材料研究部的共同支持。开发替代制冷技术的需求越来越大，可以在1 Kelvin以下冷却以支持新兴应用，例如量子传感器和诸如量子传感器和量子计算机。目前，液态氦冰箱主要用于达到1桶以下的温度。由于氦气的稀缺性越来越不足以及当前技术缺乏可移植性或可伸缩性，替代冷却方法引起了极大的兴趣。固态制冷技术，例如通过减少和增加磁场的循环冷却磁性固体材料的技术在某种程度上取代了氦技术。但是，它具有明显的缺点，包括几个特斯拉的高磁场需求。该项目为基于机械紧张的固态磁性材料提出了低场冷却技术。这种方法预计将是可持续，便携式和在电子芯片水平上部署的，从而提供了可扩展性的途径。在此项目期间，将对一群学生进行热，材料和量子科学培训。将通过开发新的课程，该课程通过麦克奈尔（McNair）的代表性不足的本科生和研究生级的研究项目来开发，该课程重点介绍了高级本科教学实验室中的低温冷却。将为当地高中教师提供夏季研究机会，以在现代热科学领域开发教育演示，作为量子支持领域。化学，生物工程，环境和运输系统以及材料研究的划分，要实现一种新的固态Millikelvin量子弹性弹性绝热制冷技术，其中将通过周期性地应用弹性应变/压力来实现冷却周期，而无需或与之相关。小磁场。在该项目中，弹性应力/应变调整将用于在一种称为沮丧磁铁的特殊类型的磁性材料中诱导接近零温度相变。因此，这种新方法有望以高效率提供远低于1开尔文的冷却。为了评估薄膜，挫折磁铁的单晶和散装陶瓷，将采用一系列独特的适应性材料特征工具：超导量子干扰器械显微镜显微镜，热成像，交流热容量，磁化等。与其他一些固态冷却技术相比，预计冷却技术将提供出色的冷却能力和较低的温度。量子弹性绝热的制冷方法有可能实现成突破性的发现，尤其是在低磁场和芯片上可伸缩应用中，并且可能对能源有效的电子设备，量子计算和传感产生转变的影响。 NSF的法定使命，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准来评估值得支持。