Nanoparticle research from a team at the University of Michigan has the potential to improve the efficacy of LED lighting by as much as 50 percent and, further down the road, could serve as the basis of invisibility cloaks.
Although based on the old idea of adding nanoparticles to LEDs, the method developed by the UM team is the most inexpensive and least disruptive to the manufacturing process yet. The full study is published in the Journal of Applied Physics.
Briefly, an ion beam is used in between the layering process that forms semiconductor *wafers. By controlling the intensity and angle of the beam, manufacturers can manipulate the size and placement of the nanoparticles layered into the *wafer.
Also not a new phenomenon, the collection of metallic particles on a semiconductor’s surface was a common occurrence during the manufacturing process and usually considered a nuisance that needed correction. However, with the new method, it can, in fact, be utilized to increase the efficacy of the semiconductor and act like minute antennas that transform more of the electricity present into usable light.
Additionally, they can reflect light out of the LED, increase illumination further. It is this reflection ability that may lead to invisibility technology in the future.
Because the UM method allows for a never before the level of control in the application of nanoparticles, it could be integral to applying a layer of material in such a way to control and activate the reverse refraction required to “bend” light around an object, rendering it invisible.
In the meantime, researchers believe they will have the better and brighter LEDs, made by the new method, ready for the consumer market in the next five years.
A *wafer, also called a slice or substrate, is a thin slice of semiconductor material, such as a crystalline silicon, used in electronics for the fabrication of integrated circuits and in photovoltaics for conventional, wafer-based solar cells. Source: Wikipedia
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