Casimir Interaction – Quantum Strangers Pushes Heat Through Vacuum
Vacuum is empty. That is why atom and molecule vibrations cannot be transferred through it. Thus, space is quiet. But what if you use quantum vacuum fluctuations?
Image by Iván Tamás from Pixabay
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Heat In A Vacuum Is Dead - Or Is It?
Your everyday experience shows that vacuum works as a very good heat insulator. Heat has a problem with vacuum. This is because thermal energy is transferred through the vibrations of atoms or molecules. But when there are no atoms or molecules there is nothing to transfer the heat. But as research made by physicists from the University of California, Berkeley shows that the strangeness of the quantum world can destroy your everyday experience.
Casimir To The Rescue
Xiang Zhang and his team showed that heat energy – against all common sense – can jump over several hundred nanometers of a very empty vacuum. The key to this miracle could be an effect of the quantum world called the Casimir Effect. This effect only works on very small distances. Nonetheless, it could impact the design of developed computer chips and other electronic components in a major way. This is because the current components are so small that the Casimir Effect might impact how to transfer and get rid of excess heat.
Normally, heat is transferred by the vibrations of atoms and molecules in matter – also known as phonons. But there is no matter in a vacuum. Thus, books will tell you that phonons cannot pass through vacuum. But Zhang's team proved that it is possible. They “pushed” phonons through vacuum thanks to quantum fluctuations.
Zhang and his coworkers placed two membranes made from silica nitride coated with a layer of gold in a vacuum chamber in a way that a distance of a few hundred nanometers was between them. When they heated one of the membranes the other heated up as well even though they weren't in any physical contact. Everything indicates that quantum field fluctuations are responsible. Thanks to them the Casimir effect takes place between the membranes.
Transfer Heat Without Touching
Scientists have predicted that the Casimir Effect could transfer vibrations – phonons – in a vacuum. But proving this in an experiment proved to be excessively hard. Zhang's team had to make extremely thin membranes in an extremely clean environment. Then they had to regulate and monitor their temperature. In the end, they found that the Casimir Effect transfers phonons through vacuum on a distance of a few hundred nanometers. That may not be much but it is far enough that they could exclude any other possible influence such as electromagnetic radiation.
Since phonons are also responsible for the transference of sound we can now say that the old saying “In space no-one can hear you scream” is false. When it comes to quantum fluctuations even sound can pass through a vacuum. Experimental confirmation of this effect now allows us to use it in heat extraction technology in electronics. Such technologies are very important for powerful components in electronics and the storage of large volumes of data as now heat transfer could be done by the quantum vacuum.
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