Physicist Almaz Gazizov receives funding to cool solid bodies with light
He plans to use epsilon-near-zero materials.
Kharitonov鈥檚 project was among the winners of the latest pitch session held by Russian Science Foundation.
鈥淭oday we need efficient methods of cooling with light. One such method is Raman cooling. This is what my project is about. Light, falling on any substance, is scattered. Such photons have more or less energy than the photons of the incident light. In certain materials, it is possible to achieve that this dissipated energy is greater. Light will “pump” energy from our substance, thereby cooling the solid. My project aims to create such conditions,鈥� explains Gazizov. 鈥淭his research is fundamental. A simple solution is needed to create efficient cooling methods. It is desirable that this process take place in air, under normal conditions. Different cooling methods are in great demand now, but no one has ever proposed such an approach.鈥�
The research will be implemented at the Department of Optics, Nanophotonics and Optical Spectroscopy.
Source text: Larisa Busil
Photo: Anton Kharitonov
Translation: Yury Nurmeev