文档介绍：LED Lighting
An accidental discovery announced recently has taken LED lighting to a new level, suggesting it could soonLED Lighting
An accidental discovery announced recently has taken LED lighting to a new level, suggesting it could soon offer a cheaper, longer-lasting alternative to the traditional light bulb. The breakthrough adds to a growing trend that is likely to eventually make Thomas Edison's bright invention 1 obsolete. LEDs are already used in traffic lights, flashlights, and architectural lighting. They are flexible and operate less expensively than traditional lighting.
Michael Bowers, a graduate student2 at Vanderbilt University, was just trying to make really small quantum dots, which are crystals generally only a few nanometers big. Quantum dots contain anywhere from 100 to 1,000 electrons3. They're easily excited bundles of energy, and the smaller they are, the more excited they get. Each dot in Bower's particular batch was exceptionally small, containing only 33 or 34 pairs of atoms.
When you shine a light on quantum dots or apply electricity to them, they react by producing their own light, normally a bright, vibrant color. But when Bowers shined a laser on his batch of dots, something unexpected happened. He was surprised when a white glow covered the table. The quantum dots were supposed to emit blue light4, but instead they were giving off a beautiful