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2 Japanese and 1 American Share Nobel Prize in Physics for Work on LED Lights 2 Japanese and 1 American Share Nobel in Physics for Work on LED Lights
(about 3 hours later)
The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2014 was awarded to Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano of Japan and Shuji Nakamura of the University of California, Santa Barbara, for “the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes, which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources.” Three physicists have won the Nobel Prize for revolutionizing the way the world is lighted.
The 2014 physics award goes to Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano of Japan and Shuji Nakamura of the University of California, Santa Barbara, for “the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes, which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources.”
The three scientists, working together and separately, found a way to produce blue light beams from semiconductors in the early 1990s. Others had produced red and green diodes, but without blue diodes, white light could not be produced, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in its prize citation. “They succeeded where everyone else had failed.”
The Nobel committee said that light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, would be the lighting source of the 21st century, just as the incandescent bulb illuminated the 20th.The Nobel committee said that light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, would be the lighting source of the 21st century, just as the incandescent bulb illuminated the 20th.
It said that the new light source is brighter, cleaner and longer-lasting than previous sources and would save energy as well as improve the quality of life of millions of people around the world. It called the new light source brighter, cleaner and longer-lasting than previous sources and said it would save energy as well as improve the quality of life of millions of people around the world.
They will split a prize of $1.1 million, to be awarded in Stockholm on Dec. 10. The three scientists will split a prize of $1.1 million, to be awarded in Stockholm on Dec. 10.
Dr. Akasaki, 85, of Meijo University and Nagoya University, and Dr. Amano, 54, of Nagoya University, are Japanese citizens. Dr. Nakamura, 60, is an American citizen. Awakened at 3 a.m. his time by a phone call from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the prize, Dr. Nakamura described the news as “unbelievable.” Dr. Akasaki, 85, of Meijo University and Nagoya University, and Dr. Amano, 54, of Nagoya University, are Japanese citizens. Dr. Nakamura, 60, is an American citizen. Awakened at 3 a.m. his time by a phone call from the Swedish academy, he described the news as “unbelievable.”
In remarks accompanying the presentation, the academy recalled Alfred Nobel’s desire that his prize be awarded for something that benefited humankind, noting that one-fourth of the world’s electrical energy consumption goes to producing light. This, it said, was a prize more for invention than discovery. In its announcement, the academy recalled Alfred Nobel’s desire that his prize be awarded for something that benefited humankind, noting that one-fourth of the world’s electrical energy consumption goes to producing light. This, it said, was a prize more for invention than for discovery.
The three scientists, working together and separately, found a way to produce blue light beams from semiconductors in the early 1990s. Frances Saunders, president of the Institute of Physics, a worldwide scientific organization based in London, agreed with those sentiments. Noting that 2015 is the International Year of Light, she said, “This is physics research that is having a direct impact on the grandest of scales, helping protect our environment, as well as turning up in our everyday electronic gadgets.”
Others had produced red and green diodes, but without blue diodes, white light could not be produced, the academy said in its prize citation. “They succeeded where everyone else had failed,” the academy said. In Africa, for example, millions of diode lamps have been handed out to replace polluting kerosene lamps.
The prize was announced Tuesday morning in Stockholm by Staffan Normark, permanent secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. For the same amount of energy consumption, LED bulbs produce four times the light of a fluorescent bulb and nearly 20 times the light of a standard incandescent bulb.
In just 20 years, the Nobel committee said, the invention has revolutionized lighting. For the same amount of energy consumption, LED bulbs produce four times the light of a fluorescent bulb and nearly 20 times the light of a standard incandescent bulb. LED bulbs are also more durable than either fluorescent bulbs, lasting 10 times as long, or incandescent bulbs, lasting 100 times as long.
“The LED lamp holds great promise for increasing the quality of life for over 1.5 billion people around the world who lack access to electricity grids,” the committee said. “Due to low power requirements, it can be powered by cheap local solar power.” Such diodes, they said, are already ubiquitous — in pockets and purses, in the screens of smartphones, as well as in televisions, lasers and optical storage devices.
LED bulbs are also more durable than either fluorescent bulbs, lasting 10 times longer, or incandescent bulbs, 100 times longer. And their future is vaster still. “The LED lamp holds great promise for increasing the quality of life for over 1.5 billion people around the world who lack access to electricity grids,” the Nobel committee said. “Due to low power requirements, it can be powered by cheap local solar power.”
The work being rewarded on Wednesday is the latest step in an evolution that began with Thomas Edison burning out light-bulb candidates in his Menlo Park laboratory in the late 19th century. Incandescent bulbs use electricity to produce heat, a glowing filament, that emits a comparatively small amount of light; fluorescent lights use a glowing gas, emitting both heat and light.
Light-emitting diodes are based on the same quantum magic that gave birth to computers, smartphones, transistor radios and all other electronic devices.
The diodes are no bigger than a grain of sand andconsist of sandwiches of semiconducting materials. When an electric field is applied, negative and positive charges meet in the middle layer and combine to produce photons of light. The color of the light produced depends on the type of semiconductor.
Nick Holonyak Jr. of the University of Illinois, who invented the first red-light diode in 1962, recently called the LED the “ultimate lamp” because “the current itself is the light.”
Red- and green-emitting diodes have been around for a long time, but nobody knew how to make a blue one, which was needed for blending with the others to create white light. The amount of information that can be packed into a light wave increases as its wavelength shortens, making blue — as in the Blu-Ray — the color of choice, for conveying information.
That is where the new laureates, working independently, came in. The key was to grow high-quality crystals of gallium nitride, the semiconductor of choice for producing blue light — a fraught process that had frustrated researchers.
In 1986 Dr. Akasaki and Dr. Amano, who was then his graduate student, succeeded in growing the crystals on a substrate of sapphire coated with aluminum nitride, and found out their properties were enhanced when they were scanned with an electron beam.
Meanwhile Dr. Nakamura, then at the Nichia Corporation, a chemical engineering and manufacturing company, succeeded in growing his own crystals, improving on Dr. Akasaki and Dr. Amano’s method. In 1992 he went on to invent the first efficient blue-light laser, which is now the heart of Blu-Ray players, and for which he was awarded the Millennium Technology Prize of one million euros in 2006.
Dr. Nakamura left Nichia in 1999 to join the University of California, Santa Barbara. Two years later, in a shocking challenge to the Japanese traditions of subservience, he sued the company for 20 billion yen, $193 million at the time, saying he deserved a share of royalties for his inventions. Nichia had given him an award of 20,000 yen — about $200 — for his contributions to the company.
In 2005 he and the company settled for a payment of 843 million yen, or about $8.1 million. Dr Nakamura told Nikkei News he was dissatisfied with the amount but had accepted it on advice of his lawyer.