LED lighting efficacy: Status and directions

A monumental shift from conventional lighting technologies (incandescent, fluorescent, high intensity discharge) to LED lighting is currently transpiring. The primary driver for this shift has been energy efficiency and associated cost savings. LED lighting is now more efficacious than any of the conventional lighting technologies with room to still improve. Near term, phosphor-converted LED packages have the potential for efficacy improvement between 160 lm/W (now) to 255 lm/W. Longer term, color-mixed LED packages have the potential for efficacy levels conceivably as high as 330 lm/W, though reaching these performance levels requires breakthroughs in green and amber LED efficiency. LED package efficacy sets the upper limit to luminaire efficacy, with the luminaire containing its own efficacy loss channels. In this paper, based on analyses performed through the U.S. Department of Energy Solid State Lighting Program, various LED and luminaire loss channels are elucidated, and critical areas for improvement identified. Beyond massive energy savings, LED technology enables a host of new applications and added value not possible or economical with previous lighting technologies. These include connected lighting, lighting tailored for human physiological responses, horticultural lighting, and ecologically conscious lighting. None of these new applications would be viable if not for the high efficacies that have been achieved, and are themselves just the beginning of what LED lighting can do.     

LED advances accelerate universal access to electric lighting

A rapid increase in the performance and quality of white LED light sources has changed the dynamics of electricity access in the last 10 years, reaching tens of millions of people with electric light who previously had no viable alternatives to fuel-based lighting, which is dangerous and expensive. Eliminating fuel-based lighting is a key public health, safety, social equality, and environmental opportunity that is now achievable. Technology advances in LEDs, other super-efficient appliances, solar photovoltaic generation, advanced batteries, and coordinating information technology systems have combined to significantly expand the reach of off-grid energy systems. With support and effort, it is plausible that small “pico-solar” and “solar home” systems could serve over a billion people within a generation, providing basic but highly valued services. Continued progress can be achieved with attention to continued improvements in technology, supporting a growing range of new businesses and enterprises in energy access markets, and synergy with broader human development effort around access to clean water, financial inclusion, and fair access to resources.     

Historical perspective on the physics of artificial lighting

We describe the evolution of lighting technologies used throughout the ages, and how the need for improvements was such that any new technology giving better and cheaper lighting was immediately implemented. Thus, every revolution in energy sources – gas, petrol electricity – was first put to large-scale use in lighting. We describe in some detail several “ancient” techniques of scientific interest, along with their physical limitations. Electroluminescence – the phenomenon by which LEDs directly convert electricity into light – was long thought to only be of use for indicators or flat panel displays supposed to replace the bulky cathode-ray tubes. The more recent uses of LEDs were mainly for street traffic lights, car indicators, small phone displays, followed by backlighting of TV screens. LED lamps for general lighting only emerged recently as the dominant application of LEDs thanks to dramatic decrease in cost, and continuous improvements of color quality and energy conversion efficiency.     

LED lighting,ultra-low-power lighting schemes for new lighting applications

In 2018, Solid-State Lighting (SSL) can totally outperform, if properly designed, most of other lighting products used for general lighting applications. This concerns various attributes such as luminous efficacy, life, spectral qualities, dimming potential, and more and more total cost of ownership. SSL can also mimic a large variety of reference light sources from candlelight to sunlight. The absence of international standards concerning LED modules remains the major difficulty for luminaire manufacturers and their clients, since perfectly matching replacement of ever-changing LED modules is not guaranteed over time. But extraordinarily innovative lighting schemes can be developed, bridging the gap between the world of entertainment and the world of general lighting, and leading to new lighting schemes with more powerful emotional content. LED sources, mostly DC driven, also can benefit from progress in photovoltaics and batteries, as well as wireless control to offer integrated solutions. This could radically change the operation of lighting in the next 10 years.     

Dynamics and instability of solid-state dewetting

Spontaneous dewetting of solid thin films proceeds by edge retraction of film edges and/or by heterogeneous void growth. Classical 1D and 2D continuous models of the evolution of a dewetting film, based on surface diffusion mechanisms, predict that in the long-time limit dewetting obeys universal scaling laws. In this paper, we review 1D and 2D predictions and recent experimental results. For this purpose, using Si(001)/SiO₂ and Ge(001)/SiO₂ single-crystalline thin films in different geometries, we have been able to compare theoretical predictions to experimental results obtained by combining in situ LEEM and ex situ AFM measurements. For dewetting from film edges, experimental results partially differ from continuous models predictions. More precisely, because of the crystallographic anisotropy: (i) the facetted edges remain stable during dewetting (they simply recede at constant shape) while poorly or un-facetted edges are unstable (they recede by finger formation); (ii) rim formation, induced by mass-conservation condition, proceeds in a layer-by-layer mode and is limited by 2D nucleation properties on the top of the rim; (iii) the island generation mechanism differs from the mass shedding behaviour predicted by 1D models. For dewetting mechanisms involving void growth, different behaviours are reported and discussed. For thin Si(001)/SiO₂ films, the corners of the opening square-shaped voids lead to a local destabilisation of the growing voids. For thin Ge(001)/SiO₂ films, the side of the voids invariably turns instable and forms tip dendrites whose branch density depends on the temperature and the initial film thickness. Finally, ultra-thin films, more sensitive to local fluctuations, dewet in a fractal geometry.     

A model for solid-state dewetting of a fully-faceted thin film

Owing to their extremely aspect ratios, most thin films are unstable and when they are heated, they will dewet or agglomerate to form islands. This process can occur in the solid state through capillary-driven surface self-diffusion. A key feature of the dewetting process is the retraction of the edges of the film, either natural edges, patterned edges, or edges where holes have formed. Models of edge retraction have been previously developed for isotropic materials and anisotropic materials with differentiable surfaces, but the effects of faceting in highly anisotropic materials have been largely unexplored. Here, we present a two-dimensional model of edge retraction for highly anisotropic, fully-faceted thin films. This model shows generally good agreement with experimental results for edge retraction of single-crystal Ni films on MgO. In both experiments and the model, rims form as the edges retract. The effects of adjusting various physical parameters on the edge retraction rate and the evolving rim geometry were explored using the model. The film thickness, surface self-diffusivity on the top facet of the rim, the equivalent contact angle of the film on the substrate, and the absolute value of the surface energies were found to be the factors that have the greatest influence on the edge retraction rate. In isotropic models and some experimental systems, valleys form ahead of the retracting rims and deepen to contact the substrate and cause pinch-off. Our model suggests that this form of pinch-off will not occur when the rim is fully faceted and the top surface is an equilibrium facet. However, pinch-off can occur through film thinning and for films with top surfaces that do not form flat equilibrium facets.     

p型层结构与掺杂对GaInN发光二极管正向电压温度特性的影响

在温度变化时, 如果GaInN发光二极管能够保持相对稳定的工作电压对其实际应用具有重要意义. 本文通过金属有机化学气相沉积生长了一系列包含不同有源区结构、不同p型层结构以及不同掺杂浓度纵向分布的样品, 并对其在不同温度区间内正向电压随温度变化的斜率(dV/dT)进行了研究. 结果表明: 1)有源区中包括插入层设计、量子阱结构以及发光波长等因素的变化对正向电压随温度变化特性影响很小; 2)影响常温区间(300 K± 50 K)正向电压随温度变化斜率的最主要因素为p-AlGaN 电子阻挡层起始生长阶段的掺杂形貌, 具有p-AlGaN陡掺界面的样品电压变化斜率为-1.3 mV·K^-1, 与理论极限值 -1.2 mV·K^-1十分接近; 3) p-GaN主段层的掺Mg浓度对低温区间(<200 K)的正向电压随温度变化斜率有直接影响, 掺Mg浓度越低则dV/dT斜率越大. 以上现象归因于在不同温度区间, p-AlGaN 以及p-GaN 发生Mg受主冻结效应的程度主要取决于各自的掺杂浓度. 因此Mg掺杂浓度纵向分布不同的样品在不同的温度区间具有不同的串联电阻, 最终表现为差异很大的正向电压温度特性.     

A microscopic view of the Fourier law

The Fourier law of heat conduction describes heat diffusion in macroscopic systems. This physical law has been experimentally tested for a large class of physical systems. A natural question is to know whether it can be derived from the microscopic models using the fundamental laws of mechanics.     

Ginzburg–Landau vortices,Coulomb gases,and Abrikosov lattices

This is a review of a mathematical analysis of vortices in the Ginzburg–Landau model: phase transitions and effective energies that govern optimal patterns formed by the vortices, in particular the Abrikosov lattice, are discussed. Analogies with Coulomb gases are also mentioned.     

Driven dissipative dynamics and topology of quantum impurity systems

In this review, we provide an introduction to and an overview of some more recent advances in real-time dynamics of quantum impurity models and their realizations in quantum devices. We focus on the Ohmic spin–boson and related models, which describe a single spin-1/2 coupled with an infinite collection of harmonic oscillators. The topics are largely drawn from our efforts over the past years, but we also present a few novel results. In the first part of this review, we begin with a pedagogical introduction to the real-time dynamics of a dissipative spin at both high and low temperatures. We then focus on the driven dynamics in the quantum regime beyond the limit of weak spin–bath coupling. In these situations, the non-perturbative stochastic Schrödinger equation method is ideally suited to numerically obtain the spin dynamics as it can incorporate bias fields $h_z(t)$ of arbitrary time-dependence in the Hamiltonian. We present different recent applications of this method: (i) how topological properties of the spin such as the Berry curvature and the Chern number can be measured dynamically, and how dissipation affects the topology and the measurement protocol, (ii) how quantum spin chains can experience synchronization dynamics via coupling with a common bath. In the second part of this review, we discuss quantum engineering of spin–boson and related models in circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED), quantum electrical circuits, and cold-atoms architectures. In different realizations, the Ohmic environment can be represented by a long (microwave) transmission line, a Luttinger liquid, a one-dimensional Bose–Einstein condensate or a chain of superconducting Josephson junctions. We show that the quantum impurity can be used as a quantum sensor to detect properties of a bath at minimal coupling, and how dissipative spin dynamics can lead to new insight in the Mott–superfluid transition.