The Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014 reward LED bulbs – Le Figaro

Three researchers were able to produce blue light using semiconductors, a key component to produce light bulbs.

emitting diodes (LED), especially those that emit in the blue, just been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2014 Two Japanese researchers at Nagoya University, Isamu Akasaki, 85 years and Hiroshi Amano, 54, and an American professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Shuji Nakamura, 60, also born in Japan, have been rewarded for the work they have conducted in the early 1990 The first two have done their research to Nagoya University and Professor Nakamura was then employed in a small business Tokushima, Nichia Chemicals. They were the first to obtain, from semiconductor components, a blue light of great intensity and stable over time.

During the preceding thirty years, researchers and engineers s’ were broken teeth on this essential element to a white light composed of three primary colors, red, green and blue. Gold, red and green LEDs were already obtained. The contribution of three researchers has been to allow to obtain low-energy bulbs, which are much less energy-intensive than incandescent (filament). Above all, their life is better and they do not require mercury.

The jury wanted to reward innovation that fits in the tradition of Alfred Nobel, founder of the eponymous prize, which was invented dynamite.