Patent ID: 8759843

Claim:
An optical/electrical transducer apparatus, comprising: a housing having a section that is thermally conductive and a member that is at least partially optically transmissive, the optically transmissive member being connected to the thermally conductive section of the housing to form a seal for a vapor tight chamber; a working fluid within the chamber, wherein pressure within the chamber configures the working fluid to absorb heat during operation of the apparatus, to vaporize at a relatively hot location as the working fluid absorbs heat, to transfer heat to and condense at a relatively cold location, and to return as a liquid to the relatively hot location; and a wicking structure mounted within the chamber to facilitate flow of condensed liquid of the working fluid from the cold location to the hot location, at least a portion of the wicking structure in contact with the working fluid comprising semiconductor nanowires configured as an active driven part of an optical/electrical transducer within the chamber and configured to be driven to emit light from within the chamber through and/or to be driven by light received in the chamber via the optically transmissive member.