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Scientists from China have developed a new cooling technology based on a rare-earth alloy that can reach temperatures close to absolute zero without relying on helium-3, reports South China Morning Post. Such an alloy could enable compact, helium-3-free cooling systems for superconducting quantum chips, advanced electronics used by military equipment, and space applications.
The researchers created a small-scale, solid-state cooling device devoid of mechanical components that hit 106 millikelvin (mK), which equals -273°C, a temperature normally reached by utilizing liquid helium. The refrigeration system depended on a rare-earth substance made of europium, cobalt, and aluminum (EuCo₂Al₉, ECA), which displays heat transfer properties akin to metals, while additionally being able to chill itself and additional components efficiently using adiabatic demagnetization (ADR), the method that does all the magic behind the discovery.
The concept underlying ADR is quite simple: a magnetic substance is positioned within a magnetic field, which compels its minute internal magnetic moments (a small magnetic dipole linked to an atom or electron) to orient themselves. And release heat. Subsequently, after the system becomes insulated, the magnetic field is withdrawn, the moments revert to a chaotic condition, take in thermal energy, and lower the temperature. Because this method relies on solid materials instead of helium-3, it avoids the need for that scarce isotope, which is essential for traditional sub-kelvin cooling systems. However, there is a catch.
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Historically, ADR has had a major weakness: the materials used could get cold themselves, but they were not very good at transferring that cold to other components. This limited their usefulness in real systems. Simultaneously, the EuCo₂Al₉ substance engineered by the group of researchers performs this very function: it can chill itself and additional parts, permitting helium-3-free refrigeration setups to be capable of cooling components to almost absolute zero Temperatures possible.
In practical terms, the compact and lightweight nature of the new cooling module may enable more portable cryogenic systems, which could be valuable for quantum computers, which are about to become the next frontier of international rivalry. A compact cryogenic cooling system could enable highly scalable quantum computing platforms with performance not achievable today.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences reportedly stated that the alloy has potential for mass production and that a pure-metal refrigeration module based on this material has already been successfully demonstrated.
This advancement arises during a period of rising fascination with substitutes for helium-3. On January 27, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) issued a call for modular refrigeration systems that do not rely on helium-3 for next-generation quantum and defense applications. Less than two weeks later, Chinese researchers published their results, signalling that they are ahead of DARPA.
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They lied about the original moon lander probe. They lied about homegrown CPUs, they lied about tianamen square. They lied about having GPUs equal to NVIDIA.
If we believe everything China says, then we'd think they have FTL spaceships that could beat the enterprise in combat, personal teleporters, have defeated death and time, and God himself says prayers to XI every night before bed.
They lied about the original moon lander probe. They lied about homegrown CPUs, they lied about tianamen square. They lied about having GPUs equal to NVIDIA.
If we believe everything China says, then we'd think they have FTL spaceships that could beat the enterprise in combat, personal teleporters, have defeated death and time, and God himself says prayers to XI every night before bed.
I would say that my reason for doubting chiefly stems from the fact that this "discovery" was announced just two weeks after DARPA announced their push. That's a little too convenient to not be engineered.
That being said, it's likely that their research had already undergone some degree of progress, and their announcement was a fluffed up reflection of that to score a point against the US. So I'm not discarding anything completely here, but it's kind of impossible to tell to what degree it's true or not, as is typical w/ China.
So, as per usual, I'll believe it when it exists in a functioning product.
They lied about the original moon lander probe. They lied about homegrown CPUs, they lied about tianamen square. They lied about having GPUs equal to NVIDIA.
If we believe everything China says, then we'd think they have FTL spaceships that could beat the enterprise in combat, personal teleporters, have defeated death and time, and God himself says prayers to XI every night before bed.
So, do we have a published paper explaining exactly how the cooling process using this new alloy works, or just a news article from a Chinese source specifically calling out DARPA?
The big problem that comes to mind is, how does this alloy dissipate heat without dumping some of it into the object intended to be cooled? With a standard helium cryostat, this is simple enough and not fundamentally that different from the standard refrigeration cycle. (Well, it's pretty different, but the helium carries the heat away, just like any refrigerant would.)
Can this alloy selectively dump its heat in one direction? Or was the test just a one off, capable of briefly reaching the desired temperatures but not necessarily maintaining them over any period of time?
I would say that my reason for doubting chiefly stems from the fact that this "discovery" was announced just two weeks after DARPA announced their push. That's a little too convenient to not be engineered.
Chaos215bar2 said:
So, do we have a published paper explaining exactly how the cooling process using this new alloy works, or just a news article from a Chinese source specifically calling out DARPA?
Here is the article published in Nature:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10144-zThe news source is kinda bad for not linking the actual published paper, but it's real research and actually legitimately in one of the most prestigious scientific journals globally.
Here is the article published in Nature:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10144-zThe news source is kinda bad for not linking the actual published paper, but it's real research and actually legitimately in one of the most prestigious scientific journals globally.
Too bad there doesn't seem to be a plain PDF copy available anywhere.
I guess it's a little harder to complain since the research was funded within China, but still, the idea of paying $30+ simply to access a single scientific paper is so counter to the kind of open communication scientific progress thrives on, it's almost insulting.
