Researchers from the Institute of low temperature and structure research in Wroclaw, Poland, developed a new white light source based on graphene-foam. Graphene does not have a band-gap, but this device uses a continuous-wave laser to excitate the graphene and opens up a bandgap which results in light emission that UV to near-infralight.
The researchers say that the light spectrum of this device is similar to the spectrum of the sun which is better than current light sources such as LEDs that offer light spectrum with strong peaks (the main problem is the strong blue light emission in LED lighting). This design can achieve a high efficiency (over 200 lm/W), high color rendering index (CRI > 99) and a broadband warm white color. The lifetime depends on the laser, which can be over 10,000 hours.
Graphene has a bright future in the lighting and display industries, with applications in both LEDs and OLEDs (and new devices such as this one). For an in-depth study of graphene in these markets see our Graphene for Display and Lighting market report.
