Winter 2006
In This Issue:
Focus On Electronic Materials
New Approach to Lighting Could Provide Huge Energy Savings
One of Suzanne Mohney’s graduate students,
Mary Horsey, is working on Group III nitride
semiconductors, a material that may be used
in the next decade for light emitting diodes
(LEDs) that could replace regular light bulbs,
providing tremendous energy savings worldwide.
Current incandescent lighting is remarkably
inefficient, with only about 5 percent of the
electrical energy being converted to visible light.
Fluorescents, at 25 percent efficiency, still leave
plenty of room for energy savings. By using
semiconductor nanocrystals as the light emitting
material, an energy savings of as much as 50
percent could be achieved over current power
consumption. Cutting the amount of energy used
in lighting in half worldwide would result in a
savings equivalent to the output of 50 nuclear
plants, according to a report of the National
Nanotechnology Initiative.
Today, Prof. Mohney says, there are many companies investing heavily in solid state lighting. Presently, white light can be produced using light emitting diodes, though the light color is not always of the most pleasing quality. Making a more appealing white light, while reducing costs and getting closer to the theoretical efficiency of LEDs, is the current direction of researchers in the lighting field, she says.
