Reef Discussion

NiCd

Lead Moderator
Jul 29, 2011
4,296
1,586
Sydney
Leds 60 Per Cent Brighter By Copying Firefly Lanterns
"
A team of researchers has managed to boost the amount of light an LED emits by 60 per cent simply by etching its outer surface to resemble the outside of a firefly’s lantern.

Researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology have created the new organic LED by creating a nano-structured lens that sits on top of the surface of an otherwise normal LED. The researchers discovered that the outside of a firefly’s lantern features a fine surface of tiles, which reduces difference between the refractive index of its body and the surrounding air. In turn, that allows more light to be emitted.

The team simply mimicked the tiled structure at the nanoscale using a polymer resin that sits on top of the regular light-emitting surface. In a series of experiments, the team found that the green LED they developed was 60 per cent brighter than a regular device when supplied with the same power. The results are published in Nano Letters.

The team reckons that LEDs made using this technique could be used in displays to provide the same level of brightness as regular screens while requiring less power."

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2016/04/s...percent-brighter-by-copying-firefly-lanterns/

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NiCd

Lead Moderator
Jul 29, 2011
4,296
1,586
Sydney
There are a lot better lighting boffins of here than me, but I think oled's have always been behind leds in terms of efficiency but these seems like a pretty big step forward, their applications for us moving away from clusters of single point of origin lighting to wide, even curved, panel types seems pretty impressive.

We could also look at doing things like backdrop lighting where we introduce light from the sides of the tank as well for either aseptic reasons or to supplement overhead lighting to help overcome loss of colour of polyp die off in the colonies because the surface lights cannot penetrate there.
 

NiCd

Lead Moderator
Jul 29, 2011
4,296
1,586
Sydney
i hate when you re read posts you typed on your phone and realise your misspelt half of it.

BTW i beat reef builders to this by three days, woot!