[Vo]:RE; diode array in photodiode array

[Charles M. Brown]

I'm surprised that many of you go through elaborate 
alternatives to the simple possibility that the second law 
of thermodynamics is weak at the nanometer scale. Is 2LoT 
worth such devotion?

If thermally driven random movements of molecules or 
mobile charges cause some of these particles to be in a 
temporarily higher energy state and the higher energy 
particles can be delivered to a process that brings them 
down to an average energy state so energy can be extracted 
from the particles as they return, 2LoT is not violated 
for the particles involved but 2LoT is violated in the 
outcome where zero grade ambient heat is reduced and an 
energy output produced. Maxwell's demon was devised to 
distinguish the kinetic theory of heat from the caloric 
fluid theory by allowing for such usable particle energy 
variations. Unfortunately, the demon required optical 
sensing which consumes more energy than the use of sorted 
higher energy states would produce. Smoluchowski's 
trapdoor does not need an energy consuming detector. 
Particles push through a trapdoor blindly if they have 
enough energy to do so. The trapdoors don't need springs 
because a higher pressure is built up behind the one way 
openable door, closing it until a high energy particle 
pushes in. 

A diode is a practical electronic form of  Smoluchowski's 
trapdoor.

Aloha,
Charlie