Why it was nearly impossible to develop a blue LED

LED lights opened up the door to many types of lighting we see today.

Take smartphones for example, or computer screens to billboards and stadiums.

LED stands for light-emitting diode and they are, in fact, far more efficient than traditional incandescent bulbs, as they convert a greater percentage of energy into light rather than heat.

But not very long ago, creating powerful blue LEDs entirely seemed like a far-off dream.

But, why?

Major companies like Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic and Bell Labs all raced to be the first to crack the mystery.

However, it was one Japanese-American electronic engineer named Shuji Nakamura who made the breakthroughs.

Nakamura introduced his ideas to his boss at Nichia Corp, who recognised the billion-dollar market potential and invested $3 million into Nakamura's research.

After years of research, Nakamura found that blue LEDs required a 'near-perfect crystal structure.'

Any flaws in this structure would result in more energy to emit as heat rather than light.

The material required for blue LEDs was gallium nitride, which had been largely abandoned due to its challenging manufacturing process.

And the first attempts at making blue LEDs were so dim and inefficient that experts considered the project a dead end.

However, Nakamura made a breakthrough by developing a p-type version of gallium nitride that was more stable than the n-type version.

Building up to a complex mixture of the sapphire substrate, buffers and other materials, Nakamura was the first man to create a blue LED by 1993.

The result was 1,500 microwatts of power and an illuminating blue LED that shined as bright as ever even in daylight.

Nakamura described his joy as feeling like he had reached the "top of Mount Fuji."

The electronics company was stunned and once the world realised the potential of blue LEDs, the demand exploded.

Companies began manufacturing one million billion LEDs every month.

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Within four years, Nichia’s revenue doubled and Nakamura's curiosity didn't stop there. He later went on to become the first person to also create white LEDs which are essentially blue LEDs covered with yellow phosphorus.

Together with two other physicists, Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano, Nakamura received the 2014 Nobel Prize for Physics "for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes, which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources."

Viewers have been loving Nakamura's story as shared through the YouTube channel Veritasium.

"So he was underfunded, underappreciated and undersold, yet he almost single-handedly created one of the most important technologies in the modern world, a true legend," one viewer wrote.

"Mr. Nakamura is a hidden giant everyone should know more about. Incredible tenacity and great video," added another.

"It must be insane being him and being able to look at so many things and go "that is directly the result of MY work and research", that's so awesome," someone else commented.