Shuji Nakamura has not had an easy road to the Nobel Prize. The LED lights were invented in the 60s, but only the red or green became common in calculators, watches, lights stand by of televisions or stereos. But lay ahead find a semiconductor material capable of emitting blue light, l or allow combining the three colors, white light bulbs manufactured with this technology . That did not happen until 1993, a Japanese company called Nichia blue created the first LED.
The invention until 2005 meant a profit of about 500 million euros. But the inventor of the patent which led billionaire, Shuji Nakamura, did not receive more than 180 euros in compensation for his discovery . After a long dispute and the abandonment of Japan today by the professor at the University of Santa Barbara (California) which eventually nationalized estadounidense- the company was ordered to pay more than seven million Nakamura.
The decision of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize yesterday rose from the bed to the author of this discovery at 3:00 am. “Professor, Nakamura, how does it feel to win the Nobel Prize in Physics?” Asked by teleconference from the headquarters of the Academy. “It’s amazing, I’m excited. It’s fascinating “, said Professor.
One of the wills of Alfred Nobel was always that the winners had collaborated with his scientific work to the advancement of Humanity . This year, the Awards Committee wanted to continue the legacy of the inventor of dynamite and decided to award the Nobel Prize for Physics teachers of Japanese origin Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano, Nagoya University (Japan), and Shuji Nakamura University of California at Santa Barbara (California, USA) by the “invention of efficient blue emitting diode light sources have enabled white light energy saving.”
But the real father of the child is the latter. “The great genius of Nakamura is did something that everyone in the scientific community said it was impossible ,” says Enrique San Andrés, a professor of Applied Physics at the Complutense University of Madrid. “He convinced Nichia to give him $ 1.5 million in just six years and put on the market the product. It is a well deserved Nobel “he continues.
The discovery of the diodes have been realized LED lights is not a new invention. The lighting technology with red or green color was achieved in the 60s of last century. The key color of these devices is in the semiconductor material used in its manufacture. It was not until 1993 when Nakamura and colleagues Nobel achieved diodes to emit blue light, thanks to a material called gallium nitride . Until then, it was not possible to emit white light with this type of technology, but just a phosphor coating on a blue LED to make lights that illuminate today’s mobile phones, car headlights or many of our homes.
At the announcement of the award from the headquarters of the Swedish Academy, Professor of Physics, Chalmers University of Technology Per Delsing began presenting the winners going on a nice classic lamp not clashed with the aesthetics of the room paneled. “The finding of diodes emitting blue light led to the realization of low power white light ‘explained by changing the color of the lamp. With her mobile in hand, he turned on the flash of the camera and continued. “screens of mobile and even flashes of their cameras are due to this technology”
LED technology electricity is converted directly into light particles photons-in. In the remaining lamp current is used to heat a material that glows with the temperature, so that only a percentage of the energy is used to produce light.
This difference is what allows the LEDs to have as low energy consumption. But it is a developing technology that continues to improve. The last record, measured in lúmenes- light for every watt used is 300 in one of these small, modern lamps compared to 16 of a traditional bulb or fluorescent mere 70 . But unlike in recent light sources, LEDs do not contain mercury to manage when its useful life is over.
The lamp life developed by the winners last for 100,000 hours of use, compared to 10,000 fluorescent or 1,000 bulbs, ie, they last 100 times longer than traditional incandescent bulbs, with the benefit that this implies in terms of raw materials used . However, life does not depend on the system designed by the winners, but the power supply. “The LED itself is eternal. Limiting its duration is the source you have to convert 220 volt to the five or six that the device needs, “explains San Andrés.
In the same way as incandescent bulbs Thomas Alva Edison has been the source of light of the twentieth century, The LED will light up the XXI century. “But its development is somewhat slowed way because it has become a commodity , something it is now necessary for our life, so prices have come down a lot, “says Ceferino López, research professor of the Institute of Materials Science of Madrid (CSIC). “What is missing is even able to imitate sunlight with LEDs” he says.
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