University of Chicago scientists have discovered how to make magnetic sensors capable of operating at the high temperatures required for engines in future cars and aircraft. The key involves slightly diluting samples of a well-known semiconductor material, called indium antimonide, which is valued for its purity.
Most magnetic sensors operate by detecting how a magnetic field alters the path of an electron. Conventional sensors lose this capability when subjected to temperatures reaching hundreds of degrees. Not so in the indium antimonide magnetosensors University of Chicago scientists Thomas Rosenbaum and Jingsi Hu developed with support from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Rosenbaum previously found that introducing a minute amount of silver to silver selenide and silver telluride improved the materials' magnetic response. He and Hu were able to recreate the magnetic effects at high temperatures in indium antimonide. "This sensor would be able to function in those sorts of temperatures without any degradation," said Rosenbaum.
