New Cheap and Efficient LEDs

    Scientists at the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, have taken an important step in the development of a new type of light-emitting diode (LED). Designed with a simplified "tandem" structure, it can produce twice as much light as a normal LED, including the white light generally desired for home and office lighting.

    The new LED was built from organic, carbon-based inexpensive materials, like plastic, rather than the more commonly used but expensive semiconducting materials such as gallium, arsenic and phosphor, which also require more complicated manufacturing processes. Moreover, scientists have demonstrated for the first time an organic white-light LED operating within a single active layer, rather than several sophisticated layers. The organic LED has favorable prospects for application in the fields of lighting and display backlights.