A solid state Pomeranchuk refrigerator Original Research Article

Recently we have shown that YbInCu4 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.