OSU Researchers Studying How Semiconductors Could Turn Heat into Computing Power

Computers might one day recycle part of their own waste heat, using a material being studied by researchers at Ohio State University. The material is a semiconductor called gallium manganese arsenide.  In the early online edition of, Nature Materials  OSU researchers describe the detection of an effect that converts heat into a quantum mechanical phenomenon – known as spin – in a semiconductor. Once developed, the effect could enable integrated circuits that run on heat, rather than electricity.

This research merges two cutting-edge technologies: thermo-electricity and spintronics, explained team leaders Joseph Heremans, Ohio Eminent Scholar in Nanotechnology, and Roberto Myers, assistant professor of materials science and electrical engineering at Ohio State.

Researchers around the world are working to develop electronics that utilize the spin of electrons to read and write data. So-called “spintronics” are desirable because in principle they could store more data in less space, process data faster, and consume less power.

Myers and Heremans are trying to combine spintronics with thermo-electronics – that is, devices that convert heat to electricity.  The hybrid technology, “thermo-spintronics,” would convert heat to electron spin.  In so doing, thermo-spintronics could solve two problems for the computing industry: how to remove waste heat, and how to boost computing power without creating more heat.

For more information, see the release from OSU