White LED Lies: It's Great, But Nobel Physics Prize-Winning Great?

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White LED lies: It's great, but Nobel physics

prize-winning great?
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11 Oct 2014 at 11:01, Tim Worstall

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Worstall @ the Weekend This year's Nobel Prize in Physics went to the three Japanese guys who
worked on, and got right, the blue LED. It's an excellent piece of work, enabling a whole new ensemble
of energy efficient lamps and colour LED screens, and fully deserving of the prize. And yes, it might well
change society in wondrous and wonderful ways.
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However, I'm not entirely certain that the Nobel Committee has got it quite right in assuming what those
changes might be. What they say will happen could happen, true. However, from what we know about
human behaviour we'd probably categorise it as being unlikely to happen in the near future, and once
again it's all down to our old friend economics.
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The actual work itself involved (stripped of all that technical stuff of interest to you lot) working out how to
grow gallium nitride. This enables blue LEDs to be produced, and once you've got those to add to red
and green ones, white light is possible and the LED light bulb could become reality. The Nobel-lers then
go on to say that this is going to revolutionise energy consumption: and that's the bit I'm really not sure
about.
But, before we go there, we should point out that whatever happens in the world of lighting, gallium
nitride has already changed our world.
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early for starvation veteran
It's the basis of the higher density we can now achieve in optical storage. That same gallium nitride is
what is used to make the blue lasers which allow us to get past the information density limits seen with
the red lasers used in CDs and DVDs. Blu-ray is so called for a very good reason: it's using those gallium
nitride lasers to both read and write the information to a density that just isn't possible with the red
(longer) light wavelengths.
We might also point out here that this is a good example of basic research that got commercialised very
quickly. Blue lasers are still (just about, depending upon which generation of them you want to talk about)
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patatas
in patent and that's why the portion of the research done at Nichia Corp was so valuable to the company.
Which brings us to the subject of lighting: strangely, the first place that these blue bulbs started to make
a difference was in railway signalling. I well remember collecting quotes for the Russian Railways in the
'90s for supplies of the new LEDs (to make signals). The point here being that white light is used in
railway signalling in a manner that it isn't in road signalling. So as soon as white (via blue) was available
there was a ready market around the world.
But on to what the Committee has said about the coming LED light revolution:
Saturn's rings, radio waves ... poetry? At

home with Scotland's Mr Physics
Incandescent light bulbs lit the 20th Century; the 21st Century will be lit by LED lamps.
I take that to be evidently and obviously true.
White LED lamps emit a bright white light, are long-lasting and energy-efficient. They are
constantly improved, getting more efficient with higher luminous flux (measured in lumen)
per unit of electrical input power (measured in watts). The most recent record is just over
300lm/W, compared with 16 for regular light bulbs, and close to 70 for fluorescent lamps. As
about one fourth of world electricity consumption is used for lighting purposes, the LEDs
already contribute to saving the earths resources.
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However, this, in a commentary reported in The Guardian, strikes me as obviously wrong:

They are so efficient that if the UK switched over to LED lighting, the nation could save 10
per cent of its electricity bill and do without eight new power stations, said Sir Colin
Humphreys, physicist, and director of research at Cambridge. Its so well deserved,
Humphreys told the Guardian. Based on this bright blue LED you can make white LEDs and
those are becoming widespread all over the world for solid state lighting. This is going to
save lots of energy.
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11-May-15 9:43 AM
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11-May-15 9:43 AM

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White LED lies: It's great, but Nobel physics prize-winning great? The...

White LED lies: It's great, but Nobel physics

Cash'n'Carrion Whitepapers The Channel The Platform

How artificial lighting could offer an artificial promise

11 Oct 2014 at 11:01, Tim Worstall

Meet the man who inspired Elon Musks

Quid-A-Day Nosh Challenge kicks off

Post-pub nosh neckfiller: Tortilla de

Saturn's rings, radio waves ... poetry? At

It's the FALKLANDS SYNDROME!

However, this, in a commentary reported in The Guardian, strikes me as obviously wrong:

Paul Allen hunts down sunken Japanese

Next page: Light up my world

Tips and corrections

Lost WHITE CITY of the MONKEY GOD

More from The Register

Stop climate change by

$30 Landfill Android

And sceptics too, say boffins

Just take the CO2 from power

Climate change will

Another climate change

Marconi: The West of England's very own

Give us your tired, your poor,

British boffin tells

Learn how using full network packet capture data

This ESG Lab report documents the hands-on

Firewall buyers guide

Manage your Mac with Active

An overview of what to consider when selecting

The group policies in this report are a

Biting the hand that feeds IT 19982015

Independent news, views, opinions and

Send us news tips

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