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Cooling computer chips by laser light for improved performance and energy efficiency

A US-based research consortium is working on developing a laser-based photonic cooling technology to both improve computer processor performance and either replace or complement water- and air- based cooling systems in data centres.

What is laser cooling (optical refrigeration)?
Optical refrigeration refers to the cooling of solids with near-monochromatic light [1]. “Laser cooling” is most commonly used thanks to great advances made in the use of lasers to cool and trap dilute gases of atoms and ions to extremely low temperatures. Laser cooling has achieved cooling temperatures as low as 218.9 K [2].  Optical refrigeration offers the advantages of compactness, no vibrations, and no requirement for the use of cryogenic fluids.

 

 

A US Federally Funded Research and Development Centre, Sandia Labs, is teaming up with a startup, Maxwell Labs, and with researchers at the University of New Mexico to develop a laser-based photonic cooling technology.

 

This technology will be applied to cool computer microchips in data centres. The idea is to use a photonic cold plate to either replace or complement water- and air- based cooling systems, which would also allow for the resulting extracted heat in the form of light to be recycled and turned back into electricity.

 

The photonic cold plate will largely be made up of a semiconductor material called gallium arsenide. It will need to be less than a millimetre thick (about a thousand times smaller than the thickness of a human hair) and as free from impurities as possible.

 

Traditional cooling methods in data centres such as air, direct liquid, and immersion cooling, do not address the extreme heat generated in the dense, power-packed regions deep within processors [3]. While a laser system cannot be used to cool an entire facility or any bulk materials, the researchers believe their technology can efficiently cool computer chips like GPUs by focusing the laser light on small, localised hot spots. If the models prove accurate, the new laser cooling technology could allow chips to operate better without overheating, improving their overall performance and power efficiency simultaneously.

 

A successful project would contribute to significantly lower the power consumption and increase the efficiency of conventional air- and water-based systems, therefore addressing the energy saving needs of data centres. Furthermore, this would also pave the way for computer processors to operate at increased performance levels.

 

About the research consortium

Under a cooperative R&D agreement, Maxwell Labs will provide the technical designs, Sandia Labs will fabricate highly pure gallium arsenide-based devices using its expertise in molecular beam epitaxy, and the University of New Mexico will evaluate the thermal performance of the resulting systems.

 

 

Find out more about the latest status and development trends in data centre cooling technology in IIR’s related technical brief.
Cooling technologies for sustainable data centres

 

 

Sources

[1] Epstein, R., & Sheik-Bahae, M. (2009). Optical Refrigeration in Solids: Fundamentals and Overview. In Optical Refrigeration (pp. 1–32). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9783527628049.ch1

[2] Zhang J., Xu J., Zhang Z., Wang C., Zhong B. Spectroscopy and laser-induced cooling characteristics of 4%Yb3+: YAG crystals. 10th IIR Conference on Caloric Cooling and Applications of Caloric Materials. http://dx.doi.org/10.18462/iir.thermag.2024.0021

[3] https://www.optica-opn.org/home/industry/2025/april/maxwell_labs_collaborates_on_laser_cooling/