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  • Perspective
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Thermophotonic cooling with light-emitting diodes

Nature Photonics volume 14, pages 205–214 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

The currently ubiquitous light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have revolutionized the lighting industry. Contrary to common belief, however, LEDs are much more than just simple electricity-to-light converters. They are solid-state thermodynamic machines, theoretically capable of continuous and near-reversible energy conversion between electrical, thermal and optical energy. For over 50 years, the possibility of exploiting LEDs as efficient solid-state coolers has remained largely out of reach due to the high-material-quality requirements and commercial focus on light emission. Recent promising advances in electroluminescent cooling by LEDs, however, suggest that the remaining challenges in the area may be surmountable and practical cooling could be feasible. This Perspective discusses recent achievements in electroluminescent cooling, outlining the expected promise, the remaining challenges and their potential solutions.

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Fig. 1: Examples of thermophotonic machines for cooling and energy harvesting compared with thermoelectric devices.
Fig. 2: Progress of the efficiency of LEDs and selected state-of-the-art LED structures.
Fig. 3: Comparison between small- and large-bias ELC.
Fig. 4: Illustration of the key challenges of ELC.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge funding from the Academy of Finland, the Photonics Research and Innovation (PREIN) flagship programme and the European Research Council under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement number 638173). We acknowledge the provision of facilities and technical support by Aalto University at the Micronova Nanofabrication Centre.

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  1. Engineered Nanosystems Group, School of Science, Aalto University, Aalto, Finland

    Toufik Sadi, Ivan Radevici & Jani Oksanen

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Sadi, T., Radevici, I. & Oksanen, J. Thermophotonic cooling with light-emitting diodes. Nat. Photonics 14, 205–214 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-020-0600-6

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