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ORNL helps develop next-generation LEDs
March 20, 2007Nanotechnology may unlock the secret for creating highly efficient next-generation LED lighting systems, and exploring its potential is the aim of several projects centered at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Seen everywhere today from traffic signals, taillights and cell phone displays to stadium JumboTrons, light emitting diodes fluoresce as electrical current passes through them. The most developed LED technology is based on crystals, typically made from indium gallium nitride. However, researchers at ORNL's Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences and the University of Tennessee are working to develop technology that will improve a new generation of LED devices composed of thin films of polymers or organic molecules.
These organic LEDs are designed to be formed into thin, flexible sheets that hold promise for a new generation of lighting fixtures and flexible electronics displays. Currently applications of organic LEDs, or OLEDs, are limited to small-screen devices such as cell phones, personal digital assistants and digital cameras; however it is hoped that someday large displays and lighting fixtures can be produced using low-cost manufacturing processes.
At ORNL, researchers are developing electrodes composed of carbon nanotubes and magnetic nanowires to enhance the light emission from polymer-based OLEDs. In early tests, carbon nanotubes improved the electroluminescence efficiency of polymer OLEDs by a factor of four and reduced the energy required to operate them. Magnetic nanowires and dots have been shown to help control the spin of electrons injected into the OLEDs to further improve the efficiency and reliability of the devices. A third aspect of the research focuses on creation and chemical processing of the nanotubes themselves. Researchers at ORNL use a technique called laser vaporization produces purer nanotubes with fewer defects than other fabrication techniques.
With assistance of a $600,000 grant from the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the ORNL/UT team hopes to merge the science and new materials research into a new technology for practical OLED devices that consumes less than half the power of today's technology and opens the door for their practical use in household lighting.
"The real, long-term solution to making a more efficient device may be found in nanoscience," said David Geohegan, an ORNL researcher who is leading the OLED effort. "Over the next year we hope to learn why nanomaterials enhance these devices. I think someday we will see OLEDs everywhere, from more durable touch-screen displays to electronic newspapers that we can roll up and carry easily to even larger wall displays for home entertainment or lighting."
The Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at ORNL is one of five Department of Energy-funded user laboratories set up to allow visiting scientists from universities and industry to use the facilities' world-class instruments and experts to fabricate, test and characterize a variety of new materials at a molecular level.
Researchers on this project are also working with Battelle Memorial Institute as part of the Battelle Nanotechnology Innovation Alliance to further develop nanomaterials for numerous other applications not only in solid-state lighting technology but also numerous other fields.
UT-Battelle manages Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the Department of Energy.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
At ORNL, researchers are developing electrodes composed of carbon nanotubes and magnetic nanowires to enhance the light emission from polymer-based OLEDs. In early tests, carbon nanotubes improved the electroluminescence efficiency of polymer OLEDs by a factor of four and reduced the energy required to operate them. Magnetic nanowires and dots have been shown to help control the spin of electrons injected into the OLEDs to further improve the efficiency and reliability of the devices. A third aspect of the research focuses on creation and chemical processing of the nanotubes themselves. Researchers at ORNL use a technique called laser vaporization produces purer nanotubes with fewer defects than other fabrication techniques.
With assistance of a $600,000 grant from the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the ORNL/UT team hopes to merge the science and new materials research into a new technology for practical OLED devices that consumes less than half the power of today's technology and opens the door for their practical use in household lighting.
"The real, long-term solution to making a more efficient device may be found in nanoscience," said David Geohegan, an ORNL researcher who is leading the OLED effort. "Over the next year we hope to learn why nanomaterials enhance these devices. I think someday we will see OLEDs everywhere, from more durable touch-screen displays to electronic newspapers that we can roll up and carry easily to even larger wall displays for home entertainment or lighting."
The Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at ORNL is one of five Department of Energy-funded user laboratories set up to allow visiting scientists from universities and industry to use the facilities' world-class instruments and experts to fabricate, test and characterize a variety of new materials at a molecular level.
Researchers on this project are also working with Battelle Memorial Institute as part of the Battelle Nanotechnology Innovation Alliance to further develop nanomaterials for numerous other applications not only in solid-state lighting technology but also numerous other fields.
UT-Battelle manages Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the Department of Energy.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
OLEDs Current Events and OLEDs News RSSToward plastic spin transistors
University of Utah physicists successfully controlled an electrical current using the "spin" within electrons - a step toward building an organic "spin transistor": a plastic semiconductor switch for future ultrafast computers and electronics.
Freeing light shines promise on energy-efficient lighting
The latest bright idea in energy-efficient lighting for homes and offices uses big science in nano-small packages to dim the future Edison's light bulb.
Nanoengineered barrier invented to protect plastic electronics from water degradation
A breakthrough barrier technology from Singapore A*STAR's Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) protects sensitive devices like organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) and solar cells from moisture 1000 times more effectively than any other technology available in the market, opening up new opportunities for the up-and-coming plastic electronics sector.
Engineers make first 'active matrix' display using nanowires
Engineers have created the first "active matrix" display using a new class of transparent transistors and circuits, a step toward realizing applications such as e-paper, flexible color monitors and "heads-up" displays in car windshields.
Electronic displays that fit on clothing could power revolution in lighting
A thin film of plastic which conducts electricity and produces solar power could be the basis for a revolution in the way we light our homes and design clothes.
New technology will allow for flexible television and computer screens
Organic light emitting diodes (OLED) are the technology used in making light emitting fabrics used in cell phones and televisions.
High efficiency flat light source invented
Scientists studying organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) have made a critical leap from single-color displays to a highly efficient and long-lived natural light source.
New Awards for Innovation Presented by Royal Society of Chemistry
New awards for innovation were presented by the Royal Society of Chemistry at a ceremony which took place in Burlington House last night, Thursday 16 January. Two Teamwork in Innovation Awards went to teams from Avecia, Huddersfield and Thomas Swan & Co., Consett for Development of Catalytic Asymmetric Transfer Hydrogenation Technology Catalysts and Production-scale Chemistry in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide respectively. The Entrepreneur of the Year Award went to Dr. Victor Christou, Opsys Ltd., for Invention and Commercialisation of New Materials and Device Structures for the Development of Small to Medium Sized Custom Displays for the Portable Electronics Industry. Avecia Process Technolog
Displays for the pants pocket
Much to the disappointment of many users of computer and portable electronic information device, flexible screens still cannot be found in retail stores. The reasons are mainly of technical and chemical nature, as Dr. Armin Wedel from the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP explains: "Many developers of displays which you will simply roll up and stick in your pocket are using organic light emitting diodes or OLEDs." When a voltage is applied to semiconducting plastics, they begin to emit light in different colors. Such special polymers have one thing in common: many double bonds and aromatic rings or - in chemical terms - conjugated p-electron systems. This cause
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