Three physicists, one from the United States and two from Japan have received the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on developing blue light emitting diodes (LEDs), an important breakthrough in photonics. The technology discovered by the three researchers allows the creation of LED light bulbs that shine up to 10 years, consume much less than any other light source, and emit a bright white light.
The blue LEDs created by the three scientists – Isamu Akasaki, of the Meijo University and Nagoya University, Hiroshi Amano, of Nagoya University, and Shuji Nakamura, with the University of California at Santa Barbara – has led to the creation of a series of wonders of technology that we use today. The LED-backlit screens of TVs and computer monitors, the lasers in Blu-ray players and high density data storage devices, and many others, were made possible by the invention of the blue LED by the three above mentioned scientists.
Why is a blue LED such a big deal, you might ask? Blue – or more exactly cyan – is one of the components of white light (remember what you learned in physics class?). Mixing cyan, magenta and yellow light together yields white light. The first LED was created in the 1960s, emitting ultraviolet wavelengths and red light. Yellow and green LEDs were introduced in the mid-1990s, while white LEDs haven’t been launched until the mid-2000s.
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The three physicists have received this important distinction – and the prize worth $1.1 million – as a culmination of their three-decade work, rather than the result of a single spark of inspiration. The three have carefully chosen materials to combine into configurations that work for a reasonable period of time, and at reasonable brightness and efficiency. Their 30 year journey will finally be recognized by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences at the awarding ceremony that will take place on December 10th in Stockholm, Sweden.