Next-generation LED Lighting: ‘Spintronic’ LED from Utah Physicists

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University of Utah

Physicists from the University of Utah may already have the answer you’re looking for. The university made a recent announcement on the invention of a “spintronic” organic light-emitting diode or OLED. This technology promises to deliver brighter, cheaper and more environment-friendly LEDs than those used in the market today. The OLED lighting technology can be used for lighting fixtures, electronic devices as well as television and computer displays to be developed in the years to come.

“It’s a completely different technology,” says Z. Valy Vardeny, one of University of Utah’s prominent professors in physics. Though the current prototype made by the Utah physicists gives off an orange-hued light, Vardeny anticipates the production of red and blue ones within two years. Having white spin OLEDs is expected to happen eventually as the technology is improved and perfected over time.  

The new OLED technology developed by the Utah physicists makes use of organic semiconductor that keep information using the “spins” of the electron which is unlike the traditional storing process that is based on the electrical charges of electrons. This lighting technology also makes use of the “organic spin valve” developed by Vardeny together with other colleagues. This device is only capable of regulating electrical flow. Through further studies, researchers found out that a possible modification can allow the instrument to emit light, thus the creation of the spin OLED technology.

According to Verdeny, it may take about five years before these new generation LEDs hit the stores. Further improvements must be made in order to run at room temperature. 

This new-generation LED was developed by Vardeny together with Tho Nguyen and Eitan Ehrenfreund. All three are equally accomplished physicists in their own right. Nguyen is the first author of the study while Ehrenfreund is a physicist at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa.

Funding for the study was provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, Israel Science Foundation and U.S. – Israel Binational Science Foundation.

Visit University of Utah’s news center for more information on this report.