When the Nobel Prize in Physics jury announced the news on the 7th in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, it was determined that the three winners invented a blue light-emitting diode (LED) to help people obtain white light sources in a more energy-saving way. LED lights based on this principle "will light up the entire 21st century."
20-year-old "young" invention
The three winners are 85-year-old Akasaki Isamu, a professor at Japan's Akijo University, 54-year-old Nagoya University professor Amano Hiroshi, and 60-year-old professor Nakamura Shuji from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Among them, Shuji Nakamura is a Japanese-American.
A statement from the Nobel Prize in Physics Selection Committee said that these three scientists derived blue light beams through semiconductors in the early 1990s, but brought fundamental changes to the development of the field of lighting.
Compared with traditional light sources, LED light sources have the advantages of energy saving and durability. Red LEDs and green LEDs have long been invented, but manufacturing blue LEDs has long been a problem. Without the blue of the three primary colors, it is impossible to obtain a white LED light source that can be used for lighting and make consumers feel comfortable.
"Their invention is revolutionary," the statement said. "Incandescent lamps lit up the 20th century, and the 21st century will be lit by LED lamps."
LED lamps benefit the world
According to the selection committee, this "young" invention, which is only "20 years old", won the award because this white light source created in a new way has "benefited all of us."
According to research data, the energy consumption of most advanced LED lamps can be as low as less than one-twentieth of ordinary light bulbs, but their durability is 10 times and 100 times that of fluorescent lamps and incandescent lamps respectively, and the lighting effect is more stable.
Since about a quarter of the world’s total electricity generation is used for lighting purposes, the advent of LED lights has made a significant contribution to saving global resources. Nowadays, many countries are promoting the transition to LED lighting to save more electricity and even resources required for lighting.
The selection committee also believes that LED lights have very low power requirements and can be used by relying on local low-cost solar energy. The advent of this new type of light source has brought a higher quality of life to the 1.5 billion people around the world who do not benefit from the power grid.
Philip Scheve, a physicist at the Joint Quantum Institute of the University of Maryland, said that winning the award for LED lighting research shows that physics research can bring tangible benefits, not just exploring the mysteries of the universe.
As in previous years, the Physics Prize is the second Nobel Prize announced this year. In the next few days, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and other awards will be announced one by one.
Award speech
85-year-old Isamu Akasaki first thanked his research team at the press conference held after winning the award, saying, "I cannot complete this result alone."
Mentioning the secret of success, Isamu Akasaki emphasized the perseverance of the research team. He admitted that many people had told him before that his research would not bear fruit at the end of the 20th century, "but I never thought so... I just kept doing what I hoped to do."
Shuji Nakamura, who was in the United States, received the winning call early in the morning local time. He was so surprised that he couldn't believe it. He later issued a statement, saying he was honored to win the award. "It is very satisfying to see our LED lighting dreams come true... I hope that energy-saving LED lights will help reduce energy consumption and reduce lighting costs worldwide."
Although Shuji Nakamura is currently a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, he invented blue LED while working at an unlisted Japanese company called "Nichia Chemicals". Reuters reported that although Shuji Nakamura brought outstanding inventions, he received almost no awards from Nichia Chemicals in the next 10 years. Until 2004, a Tokyo court ordered Nichia to pay 20 billion yen (US$183 million) in compensation to Shuji Nakamura.
Achievements
The Three Musketeers completed the "three missing ones"
Light-emitting diode (LED) lighting has long been a part of daily life. The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics recognized the invention of blue LED, which brought new "light" to mankind. It is precisely because of the collection of light of the three primary colors of red, green, and blue that LED lighting, an energy-saving light source that benefits all mankind, can "illuminate the 21st century."
Although red LEDs and green LEDs have existed for a long time and have been used as display light sources for machines and instruments, due to the three primary colors of light including red, green, and blue, the lack of blue light sources has made it impossible to create white light sources for lighting. Whether in science or industry, how to create blue LEDs has puzzled people for decades.
In 1973, Isamu Akasaki, who was working at the Tokyo Research Institute of Panasonic Electric Company, first started research on blue LEDs. Later, Akasaki Isamu and Amano Hiroshi collaborated on basic research and development of blue-light LED at Nagoya University, and successfully developed blue-light LED for the first time in 1989. Shuji Nakamura worked for Nichia Chemical Industry Company at the time. His practical research allowed the company to launch LED lighting products for the first time in 1993, thus triggering innovation in lighting technology.
LED lights are energy-efficient and have a long lifespan. They can continue to illuminate for about 100,000 hours, while the lifespans of incandescent and fluorescent lamps are only 1,000 hours and 10,000 hours. This kind of lamp has been continuously improving its luminous efficiency since its birth. The latest record has reached a brightness of 300 lumens per watt of power, which is equivalent to 15 times that of incandescent lamps.
Revealing the secret
Shuji Nakamura serves as the leader of the Guangdong innovation team
It is understood that the 2014 Nobel Prize winner in physics, Mr. Shuji Nakamura, is the leader of the fourth batch of innovation and entrepreneurship teams in Guangdong Province. Last year, he received the highest funding of 40 million yuan for the team in our province that year.
Persisting in ten years will produce results
The 60-year-old Shuji Nakamura was born in Japan and worked as a technician at Nichia Chemical Industry Company, a small company in Japan. In 1990, Shuji Nakamura persisted in loneliness for 10 years. After many failures and constant exploration, he developed a blue high-brightness light-emitting diode. In 1993, he increased the brightness of the blue light-emitting diode to 100 times its original value. Through the combination of blue, red, and green LEDs, full-color LED screens have appeared in the world, and a new generation of energy-saving lighting fixtures that can replace incandescent and fluorescent lamps has been produced. Since then, the LED industry has used this new technology to start the commercial production of white LEDs (semiconductor ecological light sources), which has greatly reduced power consumption.
Foreign big names come to Guangdong to show off their skills
China's LED production and application started late, but it is catching up with the world powers very quickly. Guangdong Province has been at the forefront of the country. Last year, the province's LED output value reached 280 billion yuan. At the same time, governments at all levels in Guangdong also attach great importance to research and development. The provincial government has proposed the overall idea and goal of accelerating the development of strategic emerging industries in the province, and has focused on supporting the LED industry as one of the three strategic emerging industries (high-end new electronic information, new energy vehicles, and semiconductor lighting). It has cultivated a number of large-scale enterprises with international influence and formed several emerging industry clusters with relatively complete industrial chains and an output value of over 100 billion.
Last year, Mr. Shuji Nakamura, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and an academician of the National Academy of Engineering, cooperated with the Guangdong Industrial Technology Research Institute (Guangzhou Nonferrous Metal Research Institute) to form the "Nitride Semiconductor Lighting Industry Technology Innovation Team" and served as the leader. The team received the highest funding of 40 million yuan for Guangdong Province’s introduction of innovation and entrepreneurship teams that year.
Qiu Xianyang, Dean of the Provincial Industrial Technology Research Institute, introduced: "This project introduces a world-class innovation team led by Professor Shuji Nakamura, focusing on the research and development of high-efficiency light-emitting diodes (LEDs) based on nitride materials, mastering key semiconductor lighting technologies with independent innovative intellectual property rights, and promoting their industrialization. At the same time, new LEDs, high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) will be developed ) and other new application technologies will provide Guangdong Province with new product applications and cutting-edge technology reserves. The introduction and research results of this innovative team are expected to significantly improve my country’s research and development level in semiconductor lighting and other fields, and will play a positive role in improving the industrial chain of Guangdong Province’s semiconductor lighting and related optoelectronics industries.”
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