US physicists have invented a new organic light-emitting diode (OLED) that promises to be brighter, cheaper and more eco-friendly than those currently widely used in electronic devices.
The new LED, known as spin-polarized organic LED or spin OLED, stores information in the electron’s spin and the electrical charges. It also uses an “organic spin-valve,” which are used in computers, TVs, cell phones and many other electrical devices, the study said.
The entire device is 300 microns wide and long and a mere 40 nanometres thick, which is about 1,000 to 2,000 times thinner than a human hair, the study said.
The spintronic LED will be more eco-friendly, cheaper to make and brighter than today’s OLEDs, and could outperform and replace all of the existing OLED technology, he said.
However, the spintronic LED can only operate at a temperature of 280 Fahrenheit and emits only the colour orange, Z. Valy Vardeny, senior author said, adding that the device must be improved to run at room temperature and produce red, blue and eventually white.
The original LEDs, introduced in the early 1960s, use a conventional semiconductor to generate coloured light. Newer organic LEDs or OLEDs use an organic polymer or “plastic” semiconductor to generate light.
Keywords: eco-friendly organic LED
