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Science 27 May 2005:
Vol. 308. no. 5726, pp. 1274 - 1278
DOI: 10.1126/science.1108712

Review

Solid-State Light Sources Getting Smart

E. Fred Schubert and Jong Kyu Kim

More than a century after the introduction of incandescent lighting and half a century after the introduction of fluorescent lighting, solid-state light sources are revolutionizing an increasing number of applications. Whereas the efficiency of conventional incandescent and fluorescent lights is limited by fundamental factors that cannot be overcome, the efficiency of solid-state sources is limited only by human creativity and imagination. The high efficiency of solid-state sources already provides energy savings and environmental benefits in a number of applications. However, solid-state sources also offer controllability of their spectral power distribution, spatial distribution, color temperature, temporal modulation, and polarization properties. Such "smart" light sources can adjust to specific environments and requirements, a property that could result in tremendous benefits in lighting, automobiles, transportation, communication, imaging, agriculture, and medicine.

Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering and Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA.

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Plasmonics: Merging Photonics and Electronics at Nanoscale Dimensions.
E. Ozbay (2006)
Science 311, 189-193
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)