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poor mans superconductor wire

Hi,

I was thinking of an alternative to superconductors to transmit electricity with low (or zero) resistance. If there is a wire used which has a fixed resistance but is able to regenerate some of the lost energy that is lost to resistance, then it would have an effective resistance that is lower. I think they key is to structure the wire so the losses happen in a way that they can be regenerated. I was thinking maybe something like a diode could work. ie. The wire would be a stretched diode turned sideways, so that the P and N of the diode are at the start of the wire and also the same P and N sections are at the end of the wire. Then if the current is sent down the interface of the diode between the P and N on the anode side, then if there is resistance in the "wire", it will create phonons at the diode junction, and they can be pumped by the diode back into the wire if the cathode of the diode is routed back to the anode at the area that the electrical loss occurs. Would something like this work? It is similar to a solar panel for collecting electricity, but instead of using photons from the sun, it is using phonons from electrical resistance losses.

cheers, Jamie

Reply to
Jamie M
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Electrons are too heavily scattered at room temperature, and aren't scattered with enough energy to notice. Thermal velocity is around 50 km/s (26meV), while electron drift velocity is on the order of 0.01 m/s (depends on doping, charge density and current density), 10^5 times less.

Perhaps an extremely low temperature (i.e., 10^5 times less than 300K ambient) would make the scattering more significant (however, scattering is also thermally driven, which is why silicon resistors and FET channels have a positive tempco), but you still need a semiconductor junction with microvolt bandgap. That probably doesn't exist, or is too small (or too tricky to tune by composition) to matter.

You might have more luck with a really fancy approach (which is to say, not much), like, suppose the scattering could be made coherent, to make coherent phonons (a phonon laser -- such a thing has been demonstrated). Then suppose an acoustic multiplier could be made, to generate harmonics. A few orders of magnitude later and the phonons will be on the order of

100s meV, potentially enough to play with at room temperature, or capture with the help of a low bandgap semiconductor.

Tim

-- Seven Transistor Labs Electrical Engineering Consultation Website:

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Reply to
Tim Williams

Hi,

Thanks thats interesting, I think a "phonon standing wave" that keeps the electrons lined up and travelling straight with no losses could work maybe. Maybe a dual bandgap (cathode to cathode diode) with the electrons confined to travel only in the cathode area to hold them locked into that straight path down the wire.

cheers, Jamie

Reply to
Jamie M

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