Bolin Liao
University of California, Santa Barbara
Reliable, compact and efficient refrigeration technologies are essential for future space exploration and science missions. Magnetic refrigeration is a promising technology due to its solid-state nature and the capability to deliver cooling power below 1 K. However, currently available magnetic refrigerants are limited and the efficiency of magnetic refrigeration at higher temperatures (e.g. 10 to 30 K) remains low. To identify new refrigerants and advance magnetic refrigeration as an attractive cooling technology for a wider temperature range, we propose to develop a novel computational method to predict the refrigeration efficiency of magnetic materials from their chemical composition and crystal structure. Equipped with this computational tool, we will conduct efficient search in existing material databases to identify new promising magnetic refrigerants for applications in different temperature ranges.