Applications in smart phones or luminescent bathroom tiles conceivable / Collaboration of Bonn University, Regensburg University, the University of Utah and MIT OLEDs are already used in the displays of smart phones or digital cameras today. They offer an especially bright image with high contrast, but come with a serious drawback: typically, only one quarter of […]
Displays
UC’s SmartLight more than a bright idea, it’s a revolution in interior lighting ready to shine
The innovative solar technology “would change the equation for energy,” according to UC researchers A pair of University of Cincinnati researchers has seen the light – a bright, powerful light – and it just might change the future of how building interiors are brightened. In fact, that light comes directly from the sun. And with […]
New chemistry: Drawing and writing in liquid with light
Researchers from the Laboratory of Polymer Chemistry in the University of Helsinki’s Department of Chemistry, Finland, have managed to draw in an alcohol-based solution using laser light. The research was published in Macromolecules, a significant international journal. University of Helsinki researchers have manufactured photochemically active polymers which can be dissolved in water or certain alcohols. […]
Breakthrough research produces brighter, more efficiently produced lighting
(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– By determining simple guidelines, researchers at UC Santa Barbara’s Solid State Lighting & Energy Center (SSLEC) have made it possible to optimize phosphors –– a key component in white LED lighting –– allowing for brighter, more efficient lights. “These guidelines should permit the discovery of new and improved phosphors in a […]
Defective nanotubes turned into light emitters
UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country researchers have developed and patented a new source of light emitter based on boron nitride nanotubes and suitable for developing high-efficiency optoelectronic devices. Scientists are usually after defect-free nano-structures. Yet in this case the UPV/EHU researcher Angel Rubio and his collaborators have put the structural defects in boron nitride nanotubes […]
Breakthrough research produces brighter, more efficiently produced lighting
(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– By determining simple guidelines, researchers at UC Santa Barbara’s Solid State Lighting & Energy Center (SSLEC) have made it possible to optimize phosphors –– a key component in white LED lighting –– allowing for brighter, more efficient lights. “These guidelines should permit the discovery of new and improved phosphors in a […]
The world’s most powerful terahertz quantum cascade laser
Whether it is diagnostic imaging, analysis of unknown substances or ultrafast communication – terahertz radiation sources are becoming more and more important. At the Vienna University of Technology, an important breakthrough has been achieved. Terahertz waves are invisible, but incredibly useful; they can penetrate many materials which are opaque to visible light and they are […]
Seeing in the dark
WASHINGTON, D.C. Oct. 29, 2013 — Thermal infrared (IR) energy is emitted from all things that have a temperature greater than absolute zero. Human eyes, primarily sensitive to shorter wavelength visible light, are unable to detect or differentiate between the longer-wavelength thermal IR “signatures” given off both by living beings and inanimate objects. While mechanical […]
Nanoscale engineering boosts performance of quantum dot light emitting diodes
Making the light at the end of the tunnel more efficient LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Oct. 25, 2013—Dramatic advances in the field of quantum dot light emitting diodes (QD-LEDs) could come from recent work by the Nanotechnology and Advanced Spectroscopy team at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Quantum dots are nano-sized semiconductor particles whose emission color can […]
Force to be reckoned with: NIST measures laser power with portable scale
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a novel method for measuring laser power by reflecting the light off a mirrored scale, which behaves as a force detector. Although it may sound odd, the technique is promising as a simpler, faster, less costly and more portable alternative to conventional methods […]