Researchers created real-life freeze beams for USAF.

Freeze beams are not full-scale science fiction. The idea of those systems is "stolen" from SciFi movies. In real life, this technology might not be suitable for weapon use. But it can use for low-temperature electronics. The weaponized version could be the low-temperature ions that are shot against a target. That loaded with opposite electricity. If the system uses ions the target must load with positive electric load. That allows those ions to impact with it. 

Real-life freeze beam uses plasma or anions and ions whose temperature is very low. Plasma is an ionized gas that can consist of ions that are positive particles. Or anions that are negative ions. The plasma has similar temperatures as neutral gas. And freeze beam is low-energy plasma. If the only wanted effect is the freezing the system must neutralize those ions and anions. In that process, the ions will turn back to neutral gas. 

The ion cannon shoots that low-energy plasma whose temperature is very low against the target. The system can use anti-ionization for turning those ions or anions back to neutral atoms when they travel through the nozzle of the ion cannon. 

"Professor Patrick Hopkins of the University of Virginia is developing a freeze-ray device to cool electronics in spacecraft and high-altitude jets. The technology is based on plasma, which surprisingly cools surfaces before heating them. With a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Air Force, the team is exploring ways to amplify and prolong this cooling effect. (Artist’s concept.)" (ScitechDaily.com/Chilling Breakthrough: The Science Behind a Real-Life “Freeze Ray” Technology for the Air Force)

The system can shoot anions and ions by using internal accelerators. And that thing will remove an electric load of the plasma. The system must neutralize those ions and anions before they impact the targets. Or they will send electrons to the layer. Or remove electrons from the layer. 

Or the system can shoot ions through the electron cloud. And another version is that the system uses some electronegative material like protons that remove extra electrons from anions. So the freeze beam is the beam of an extremely low-temperature gas. The only problem with those systems is that they require neutralizers. 

The use of a freeze beam can have mainly other use than as a weapon. The extremely thin low-temperature gas beams can use to keep microchip temperature low. Or freeze beam can travel above the electric wire. That can use in the superconducting technology. 

The freeze beam can use to freeze electronics. It is used to make frozen gas around the aircraft or between the aircraft and the observer. If that extremely low-temperature gas hovers above the aircraft. It makes that craft invisible to IR sensors. In this system, the frozen gas will hover above the warmer gas layer. The freeze beam can also lower the temperature of the exhaust gas of the jet engines.

https://scitechdaily.com/chilling-breakthrough-the-science-behind-a-real-life-freeze-ray-technology-for-the-air-force/?expand_article=1&expand_article=1