Chinese researchers have unveiled a new rare earth alloy so cold and efficient it could upend decades of reliance on helium-3 and send shock waves through the global race for quantum computers or ultra-sensitive detectors.
A mini-fridge built with the alloy has achieved temperatures extremely close to absolute zero using no moving parts. And it comes at a time when the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is actively hunting for exactly such a technology.
On January 27, DARPA issued an urgent call for proposals: develop a modular, helium-3-free cooling system for next-generation quantum and defence technologies.
Less than two weeks later, the Chinese scientists answered – with a paper published in Nature.
The alloy “has the potential for mass production. The joint team has recently successfully developed a pure metal refrigeration module based on this alloy material,” the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) said on its website on February 13.
“This highly efficient cooling module could offer a stable, portable cooling source for quantum chips and support major space exploration projects with a self-reliant refrigeration system,” CAS added.
