Laser Cooling of Solids: Novel Advances and Applications

Dear Colleagues,

It is my pleasure and honor to present this Special Issue of Applied Sciences, Laser Cooling of Solids: Novel Advances and Applications. I kindly invite you to submit your original research or review papers to this Special Issue. All papers will be subject to the normal standards and peer-review processes of the journal.

The laser cooling of solids, also known as optical refrigeration, is one of the most interesting and promising areas of laser physics. In 1929, Ernst Pringsheim proposed the use of anti-Stokes fluorescence to cool sodium vapor. Since the first observation of net optical cooling in a rare-earth-doped solid (Yb³⁺-doped ZBLANP glass) in 1995 by Epstein’s research team, this area of laser physics has attracted widespread attention from researchers because of the wide range of its applications including optical cryocoolers for airborne and space-based applications, heat suppression in high-power lasers, and the cooling of nanoparticles for biological and mesoscopic physics.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to provide an overview of recent experimental and theoretical achievements in the laser cooling of solids and its applications. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Laser cooling rare-earth-doped solids;
• Laser cooling of semiconductors;
• Radiation-balanced (athermal) lasers and amplifiers;
• New materials for laser cooling;
• New methods of laser cooling;
• Thermodynamics of laser cooling of solids;
• Optical cryocoolers;
• Laser cooling of rare-earth-doped photonic crystals;
• Laser cooling of nanoparticles;
• Thermometry techniques for laser cooling.

Dr. Galina Nemova
Guest Editor

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