Researchers at MIT recently unveiled the LED which has an energy efficiency of over 200%
A group of researchers in the US have unveiled an LED which emits more light energy than it consumes in electrical energy.
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) unveiled the LED, which has a conventional efficiency of greater than 200 per cent.
This means that unlike traditional halogen lamps and newer LEDs, instead of producing heat this LED will instead cool its surroundings.
Lead researcher, Parthiban Santhanam of MIT, said: “The most counterintuitive aspect of this result is that we don’t typically think of light as being a form of heat. Usually we ignore the entropy and think of light as work.”
The possibility of such a device was first predicted in 1957, but a practical version was seemingly impossible to create until now.
Jukka Tulkki of Aalto University in Finland, told physicsworld.com: “I think this is a historically important breakthrough…that could eventually lead to more useful and technologically relevant applications.”
Alongside energy-efficient lighting other potential applications of the LED could include cryogenic refrigeration.
The research is published in Physics Review Letters.
