(PhysOrg.com) -- For the first time, researchers have demonstrated that an LED can emit more optical power than the electrical power it consumes. Although scientifically intriguing, the results won’t immediately result in ultra-efficient commercial LEDs since the demonstration works only for LEDs with very low input power that produce very small amounts of light.
Is this method converting the heat entropy into a coherent light, or in other words, useful work? Sounds like reversing the second law of thermodynamics.
The researchers […] took advantage of small amounts of excess heat to emit more power than consumed. This heat arises from vibrations in the device’s atomic lattice, which occur due to entropy.
Is this method converting the heat entropy into a coherent light, or in other words, useful work? Sounds like reversing the second law of thermodynamics.
Basically yes.
But… this article is 13 years old.
Note how the efficiency sharply drops with a lower temperature; this looks a lot like a heat pump, that we know to not violate the second law.
Based on that my guess is that the loss of local entropy causes a raise of the entropy elsewhere. Probably whatever you’re using to keep the LED warm.