Japanese Trio Win Nobel Physics Prize For Inventing The LED Lamp

Three Japanese-born researchers Today, October 7th, won the Nobel Prize for Physics for inventing the LED lamp, a boon in the fight against global warming and aiding people in poverty. The trio are Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura, a researcher who is currently a US national based in California. "This year's Nobel Laureates are rewarded for having invented a new energy-efficient and environment-friendly light source, the blue light-emitting diode (LED)," the jury said.
"Their inventions were revolutionary," it said. "Incandescent light bulbs lit the 20th century. The 21st century will be lit by LED lamps." The three researchers produced bright blue beams from semiconductors in the early 1990s, triggering a transformation in lighting technology, according to the jury.
Red and green diodes had been around for a long time but without blue light, white lamps were impossible. Devising the blue LED was a challenge that endured for three decades. "They succeeded where everyone else had failed," the jury said. It added: "With the advent of LED lamps we now have more long-lasting and more efficient alternatives to older light sources."

LED lamps emit a bright white light, last for tens of thousands of hours and use just a fraction of energy compared with the incandescent lightbulb pioneered by Thomas Edison in the 19th century. The most advanced LED lamps now consume nearly 20 times as little electricity as regular light bulbs and their performance is improving constantly.

The recipient of the Nobel Prize, Nakamura was employed at Nichia Chemicals, a small Japanese company, when carrying out the research that was rewarded on Tuesday in Stockholm. "It's unbelievable!" Nakamura said when phoned by the Nobel Committee.

The winners will share the prize sum of eight million Swedish kronor ($1.1 million, 883,000 euros). In line with tradition, the laureates will receive their prize at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel's death in 1896.

Culled from: AFP