Most of today's technology use "tiny light-emitting diodes" called LEDs, now researchers have learned to make these devices smaller than ever.
Demand is rising for smaller devices that are more energy efficient, a University of Washington news release reported.
Researchers have now built the smallest-ever LED that can be used as light energy in electronics. The devices are based off "two-dimensional, flexible semiconductors," which can be stacked, allowing them to be used for more diverse applications.
"We are able to make the thinnest-possible LEDs, only three atoms thick yet mechanically strong. Such thin and foldable LEDs are critical for future portable and integrated electronic devices," said Xiaodong Xu, a UW assistant professor in materials science and engineering and in physics, said in the news release.
Most consumer electronics use LEDs that are 10 to 20 times thicker than those being developed by the UW team.
"These are 10,000 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair, yet the light they emit can be seen by standard measurement equipment," Jason Ross, a UW materials science and engineering graduate student and co-author of the paper, said in the news release. "This is a huge leap of miniaturization of technology, and because it's a semiconductor, you can do almost everything with it that is possible with existing, three-dimensional silicon technologies."
These devices could also bring researchers a step closer to using light as interconnects in nan-scale computer chips; most of these devices rely on the movement of electrons.
"A promising solution is to replace the electrical interconnect with optical ones, which will maintain the high bandwidth but consume less energy," Xu said. "Our work makes it possible to make highly integrated and energy-efficient devices in areas such as lighting, optical communication and nano lasers."
The researchers are now working to make more efficient LEDs and determine the different ways they can be stacked.
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