3名日本裔科学家获2014年诺贝尔物理学奖——高亮度蓝色发光二极管

smarter

据诺贝尔官方网站消息，赤崎勇、天野浩和中村修二因发明“高亮度蓝色发光二极管”获得2014年诺贝尔物理学奖。

诺贝尔奖评选委员会在声明中称，三位获奖者在发现新型高效、环境友好型光源，即蓝色发光二极管（LED）方面做出巨大贡献。在蓝光LED的帮助下，白光可以以新的方式被创造出来。使用LED灯，我们可以拥有更加持久和更加高效的灯光代替原来的光源。

此前广受外界关注的加州大学伯克利分校华裔教授杨培东和斯坦福大学华裔教授张首晟无缘获奖。

蓝光LED：爱迪生之后的第二次照明革命

赤崎勇、天野浩、中村修二在上世纪90年代早期，从半导体中发现蓝色光束，于是他们引发了一场照明技术的重大变革。没有蓝色光束的红绿二极管，就无法造出白光。尽管付出很多努力，但是30年来，蓝色LED依然给科学界和生产方带来不少挑战。

但是他们在别人都失败的时候取得了成功。赤崎勇与天野浩在名古屋大学一同合作，中村修二则受雇于在日本德岛的日亚化学公司。他们的发明是革命性的。爱迪生的白炽灯泡点亮了20世纪，而21世纪将闪耀在LED之下。

图中油灯的效能是0.1流明/瓦，19世纪的灯泡是16流明/瓦，20世纪的荧光灯管是70流明/瓦，21世纪的LED灯效能则高达300流明/瓦。

白色LED灯发射出明亮的白色光束，不但持久并且高效。通过每单位电机输入功率（以瓦特为单位）中更高的光通量（以流明为单位），它们不断得到更新。最近的一次纪录便达到300lm/W，这相当于16个普通灯泡、近70个荧光灯。

全世界大约四分之一的耗电量是用于照明的，而LED的出现便为节省地球资源做出了贡献。同时，由于LED可以持续高达10万个小时，和白炽灯泡的1000个小时以及荧光灯的1万个小时相比，LED又帮助节省了材料的消耗。

世界上缺乏电网的人口将超过15亿，LED灯的出现给他们带来了希望，因为LED的低功耗，一些当地的廉价太阳能就足以达到要求。

蓝色LED的发明仅仅20年，但是在以全新的方式创造白灯方面已经贡献颇丰，造福人类。

诺奖物理学获奖者的人物介绍：

赤崎勇，1929年生，日本工程学、物理学家，曾任松下电器研究员，现任名城大学终身教授、名古屋大学特聘教授。赤崎勇开发了氮化镓结晶化技术，并完成世界第一个高亮度的蓝色发光二极管。

天野浩，1960年生，日本工程学家，专长半导体器件制造，现任名城大学、名古屋大学教授。曾与赤崎勇合作，完成世界第一个高亮度的蓝色发光二极管。

中村修二，1954年生，日裔美籍电子工程学家，高亮度蓝色发光二极管与青紫色激光二极管的发明者，世称“蓝光之父”。现任美国加州大学圣塔芭芭拉分校教授。他于1993年在日本日亚化学工业株式会社(Nichia Corporation)就职期间，基于GaN开发了高亮度蓝色LED，从而广为人知。当时，开发一种蓝色LED被认为是不可能的，此前的20年间只有红色和绿色LED。中村修二教授的创新使得LED生产商能够生产三原色（红、绿和蓝）LED，从而使实现1600万色成为可能。或许最为重要的是，LED行业利用这种新技术来开始白色LED（半导体生态光源）的商业化生产。

官方报道文章详情：

Press Release

7 October 2014

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2014 to

Isamu Akasaki
Meijo University, Nagoya, Japan and Nagoya University, Japan

Hiroshi Amano
Nagoya University, Japan

and

Shuji Nakamura
University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

“for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources”

New light to illuminate the world

This year’s Nobel Laureates are rewarded for having invented a new energy-efficient and environment-friendly light source – the blue light-emitting diode (LED). In the spirit of Alfred Nobel the Prize rewards an invention of greatest benefit to mankind; using blue LEDs, white light can be created in a new way. With the advent of LED lamps we now have more long-lasting and more efficient alternatives to older light sources.

When Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura produced bright blue light beams from their semi-conductors in the early 1990s, they triggered a funda-mental transformation of lighting technology. Red and green diodes had been around for a long time but without blue light, white lamps could not be created. Despite considerable efforts, both in the scientific community and in industry, the blue LED had remained a challenge for three decades.

They succeeded where everyone else had failed. Akasaki worked together with Amano at the University of Nagoya, while Nakamura was employed at Nichia Chemicals, a small company in Tokushima. Their inventions were revolutionary. Incandescent light bulbs lit the 20th century; the 21st century will be lit by LED lamps.

White LED lamps emit a bright white light, are long-lasting and energy-efficient. They are constantly improved, getting more efficient with higher luminous flux (measured in lumen) per unit electrical input power (measured in watt). The most recent record is just over 300 lm/W, which can be compared to 16 for regular light bulbs and close to 70 for fluorescent lamps. As about one fourth of world electricity consumption is used for lighting purposes, the LEDs contribute to saving the Earth’s resources. Materials consumption is also diminished as LEDs last up to 100,000 hours, compared to 1,000 for incandescent bulbs and 10,000 hours for fluorescent lights.

The LED lamp holds great promise for increasing the quality of life for over 1.5 billion people around the world who lack access to electricity grids: due to low power requirements it can be powered by cheap local solar power.

The invention of the blue LED is just twenty years old, but it has already contributed to create white light in an entirely new manner to the benefit of us all.