Prospects for Peltier cooling of superconducting electronics

We report on a Peltier cooling experiment using commercially available Peltier modules and reaching 149 K on the cold end. On the warm end the temperature was fixed at 282 K by cooling water. For reaching the superconducting transition temperature of the cuprates, better thermoelectric materials must be developed. We discuss estimates of the figure of merit needed for achieving the operating temperature of superconducting electronics in multistage Peltier systems. © 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.