Semiconductor could turn heat into computing power
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Computers might one day recycle part of their own waste heat, using a material being studied by researchers at Ohio State. The material is a semiconductor called gallium manganese arsenide. In the early online edition of Nature Materials, researchers describe the detection of an effect that converts heat into a quantum mechanical phenomenon – known as spin – in a semiconductor. Once developed, the effect could enable integrated circuits that run on heat, rather than electricity.
Team leaders are Joseph Heremans, Ohio Eminent Scholar in Nanotechnology, and Roberto Myers, assistant professor of materials science and electrical engineering at Ohio State.
ME PhD candidate Christopher Jaworski has been instrumental in carrying out much of the research with Heremans and Myers.
Additional information about the publication of article and the research can be found on onCampus, OSU Research Communications web site or on Nature Materials.
