A solid state Pomeranchuk refrigerator

摘要

Recently we have shown that YbInCu_4 and related compounds present a solid state Pomeranchuk effect. At their first order volume transition, a local moment phase coexist with a renormalized Fermi liquid in analogy with ~3He at its melting curve. This structural transition can be affected by pressure and magnetic field. We show here that as in ~3He the Pomeranchuk effect can be used to produce cooling. We discuss the efficiency and different ways of implementing the solid state Pomeranchuk refrigerator.