Making the Blue LED
February 12, 2024 5:21 PM Subscribe
Why It Was Almost Impossible to Make the Blue LED One of the main reasons we have blue LEDs, and therefore white LED light bulbs, is that a brilliant Japanese scientist spent a miserable year working in a lab at the University of Florida, where the only thing he was allowed to do was repair an old, broken vapor deposition machine.
If Shuji Nakamura hadn't learned that machine inside and out, he wouldn't have been able to build a better one later... which he used to grow some of the highest-quality gallium nitride crystals anyone had ever produced... which, along with a few other key discoveries, made blue LEDs possible. He got the Nobel Prize in physics for this achievement in 2014. He's now pursuing a new approach to nuclear fusion.
If Shuji Nakamura hadn't learned that machine inside and out, he wouldn't have been able to build a better one later... which he used to grow some of the highest-quality gallium nitride crystals anyone had ever produced... which, along with a few other key discoveries, made blue LEDs possible. He got the Nobel Prize in physics for this achievement in 2014. He's now pursuing a new approach to nuclear fusion.
Researchers find some shades of LED lamps threaten wildlife
Transition to blue light radiation across Europe increases suppression of sleep hormone melatonin, say scientists
posted by jeffburdges at 6:04 PM on February 12 [4 favorites]
Transition to blue light radiation across Europe increases suppression of sleep hormone melatonin, say scientists
posted by jeffburdges at 6:04 PM on February 12 [4 favorites]
For some reason, I find blue LEDs the worst colour to look at. In fact, they're so painful I can't look directly at one for long at all (which is irritating because they're on a lot of music equipment used in dark spaces).
... a search reveals I'm not alone in this [r/audiophile], and there's even an industry making sticky film you can put over your blue LEDs to tone them down.
For domestic lighting I like warm-white LEDs, as close as possible to the bright yellow of tungsten/halogen. The pure white ones (with a lot of blue in them) I find cold and unpleasant. But they're more and more common now, especially in outdoor lighting.
And don't get me started on those eye-stabbing, night-vision-killing LED car headlights. This article blames the blue in them for the pain.
posted by Pallas Athena at 6:14 PM on February 12 [11 favorites]
... a search reveals I'm not alone in this [r/audiophile], and there's even an industry making sticky film you can put over your blue LEDs to tone them down.
For domestic lighting I like warm-white LEDs, as close as possible to the bright yellow of tungsten/halogen. The pure white ones (with a lot of blue in them) I find cold and unpleasant. But they're more and more common now, especially in outdoor lighting.
And don't get me started on those eye-stabbing, night-vision-killing LED car headlights. This article blames the blue in them for the pain.
posted by Pallas Athena at 6:14 PM on February 12 [11 favorites]
The lenses in my glasses are really really high-refracting material, required for my strong prescription not to be too heavy to wear. One of the side effects of this is that red and blue are bent VERY differently toward the edges of the lenses, to the point where turning my head can cause red or blue LEDs to move VERY dramatically around my vision. I know what's going on, but if I didn't, it would be easy to mistake for hallucinations.
Anyway, blue LEDS are the worst for this. They move A TON. when I turn my head.
posted by hippybear at 6:17 PM on February 12 [7 favorites]
Anyway, blue LEDS are the worst for this. They move A TON. when I turn my head.
posted by hippybear at 6:17 PM on February 12 [7 favorites]
Wow, I remember reading about Nakamura's "True Blue" in this (very questionably titled (e: and subtitled)) article in Wired Magazine (1995).
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:18 PM on February 12 [4 favorites]
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:18 PM on February 12 [4 favorites]
sticky film you can put over your blue LEDs to tone them down.
You don't have to spend that much for a sheet of stickers. Colored electrical tape does wonders (if you don't mind having the colors change a bit).
Green one too bright? Put a tiny bit of red electrical tape on there, it gets very dim and turns orange. Very bright blue you want to tone down? Add a little green electrical tape.
Any super bright LED you want to darken almost entirely? Normal black tape works (but not recommended unless the LED you want to dim is super bright).
Super bright red? Those are rare but happen. Try green or blue electrical tape to taste.
posted by tclark at 6:21 PM on February 12 [3 favorites]
You don't have to spend that much for a sheet of stickers. Colored electrical tape does wonders (if you don't mind having the colors change a bit).
Green one too bright? Put a tiny bit of red electrical tape on there, it gets very dim and turns orange. Very bright blue you want to tone down? Add a little green electrical tape.
Any super bright LED you want to darken almost entirely? Normal black tape works (but not recommended unless the LED you want to dim is super bright).
Super bright red? Those are rare but happen. Try green or blue electrical tape to taste.
posted by tclark at 6:21 PM on February 12 [3 favorites]
I'm baffled that the manufacturers of various products still think, 35 years later, that they have to use blue LEDs to convey "new", "cool", and "high tech". I'm ready for their overuse to finally become a historical phenomenon.
Still, without them, we wouldn't have white LED lights... which have enabled a vast reduction in the amount of energy used for lighting.
Full-spectrum LED streetlights may indeed cause problems for wildlife. But I'm increasingly seeing more yellow-tinged versions, which are much easier on the eyes and less likely to disrupt circadian rhythms.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 6:34 PM on February 12 [3 favorites]
Still, without them, we wouldn't have white LED lights... which have enabled a vast reduction in the amount of energy used for lighting.
Full-spectrum LED streetlights may indeed cause problems for wildlife. But I'm increasingly seeing more yellow-tinged versions, which are much easier on the eyes and less likely to disrupt circadian rhythms.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 6:34 PM on February 12 [3 favorites]
For some reason, I find blue LEDs the worst colour to look at. In fact, they're so painful I can't look directly at one for long at all (which is irritating because they're on a lot of music equipment used in dark spaces).
Do you also have poor night vision? Because there’s a genetic thing in some folk that causes them to over produce blue cones relative to the others, and the two consistent signs are a finding blue light painful and poor night vision.
My wife has the same condition and looking at Christmas lights has become way less enjoyable.
posted by Gygesringtone at 6:38 PM on February 12 [8 favorites]
Do you also have poor night vision? Because there’s a genetic thing in some folk that causes them to over produce blue cones relative to the others, and the two consistent signs are a finding blue light painful and poor night vision.
My wife has the same condition and looking at Christmas lights has become way less enjoyable.
posted by Gygesringtone at 6:38 PM on February 12 [8 favorites]
Still, without them, we wouldn't have white LED lights... which have enabled a vast reduction in the amount of energy used for lighting.
Thank you for actually repeating the gist of the whole endeavor to develop blue LEDs. So far, only one commenter has actually referenced the subject of the post.
It's one of those cool stories where someone perseveres in the face of ignominy and threat of ruin to come back and revolutionize an industry, and beyond.
posted by 2N2222 at 7:34 PM on February 12 [33 favorites]
Thank you for actually repeating the gist of the whole endeavor to develop blue LEDs. So far, only one commenter has actually referenced the subject of the post.
It's one of those cool stories where someone perseveres in the face of ignominy and threat of ruin to come back and revolutionize an industry, and beyond.
posted by 2N2222 at 7:34 PM on February 12 [33 favorites]
Let's also not forget that blue LEDs were a crucial step on the way to the development of ultraviolet LEDs, which are already being used in a ton of applications including polymer curing, fluorescence detection, and surface and air sterilization.
posted by heatherlogan at 7:48 PM on February 12 [14 favorites]
posted by heatherlogan at 7:48 PM on February 12 [14 favorites]
I just came across this on Veritasium the other day! An amazing story of persistence and dedication. What I took away from it is that, when your boss tells you dozens of times to stop working on something, ignore them and you might get a Nobel Prize ;-)
posted by dg at 8:03 PM on February 12 [11 favorites]
posted by dg at 8:03 PM on February 12 [11 favorites]
I remember my sophomore year of college, when a freshman at my fraternity came to dinner one night full of excitement because there were blue LEDs available for purchase, talking about all the possibilities that would come with them. It was 1994.
If you went to Burning Man in the early aughts, you saw Tensor and other LED based art that he built.
posted by ocschwar at 8:08 PM on February 12 [5 favorites]
If you went to Burning Man in the early aughts, you saw Tensor and other LED based art that he built.
posted by ocschwar at 8:08 PM on February 12 [5 favorites]
Listening to kid watch the Veritasium video right now. Yay for perseverance. Corporate greed not as cool. Energy savings are yay also. Like, so much yay.
posted by PistachioRoux at 8:15 PM on February 12 [2 favorites]
posted by PistachioRoux at 8:15 PM on February 12 [2 favorites]
And as always, the capitalists screwed the person who actually wanted to solve a problem.
posted by Ickster at 9:03 PM on February 12 [6 favorites]
posted by Ickster at 9:03 PM on February 12 [6 favorites]
> For some reason, I find blue LEDs the worst colour to look at.
Absolutely. I recall it having to do with chromatic aberration. Different wavelengths of light refract differently in the eye, which means that the eye doesn’t focus all colors to the same point. Blue wavelengths miss the retina the most, and are uncomfortable to look at.
posted by Horselover Fat at 9:08 PM on February 12 [2 favorites]
Absolutely. I recall it having to do with chromatic aberration. Different wavelengths of light refract differently in the eye, which means that the eye doesn’t focus all colors to the same point. Blue wavelengths miss the retina the most, and are uncomfortable to look at.
posted by Horselover Fat at 9:08 PM on February 12 [2 favorites]
I remember my sophomore year of college, when a freshman at my fraternity came to dinner one night full of excitement because there were blue LEDs available for purchase, talking about all the possibilities that would come with them. It was 1994.
If you went to Burning Man in the early aughts, you saw Tensor and other LED based art that he built.
Frostbyte was your roommate? Cool / I’m sorry
Back when tensor was the brightest thing on the playa everyone was still using EL wire for stuff because LEDs were still limited and driving them was a pain in the butt.
Nowadays, I’m an escape room designer and I sure rely on RGB and white LEDs a lot because now they’re a lot easier to control plus I have more control than any other form of lighting. And they’re cheap as heck too.
I watched this video earlier as a rare algorithmic recommendation that I clicked on. Bully for Nakamura’s mix of skills and tendencies that got him across the finish line but I have to wonder if he is the only one who spent years of his life and risked his job tilting at this windmill. Of course we’d never hear about the ones who failed!
posted by aubilenon at 9:22 PM on February 12 [2 favorites]
If you went to Burning Man in the early aughts, you saw Tensor and other LED based art that he built.
Frostbyte was your roommate? Cool / I’m sorry
Back when tensor was the brightest thing on the playa everyone was still using EL wire for stuff because LEDs were still limited and driving them was a pain in the butt.
Nowadays, I’m an escape room designer and I sure rely on RGB and white LEDs a lot because now they’re a lot easier to control plus I have more control than any other form of lighting. And they’re cheap as heck too.
I watched this video earlier as a rare algorithmic recommendation that I clicked on. Bully for Nakamura’s mix of skills and tendencies that got him across the finish line but I have to wonder if he is the only one who spent years of his life and risked his job tilting at this windmill. Of course we’d never hear about the ones who failed!
posted by aubilenon at 9:22 PM on February 12 [2 favorites]
Strong recommendation on lightdims from me. I'm currently sitting at my desk in my home office and I can see six of the little opaque dots blanking out bright status lights without having to turn my chair.
If you think they're too expensive (they're not really), the best alternative is actually that label tape for those old school machines that press a letter into the tape to make it go white. I have some of that over my amp's power light.
posted by krisjohn at 12:20 AM on February 13 [1 favorite]
If you think they're too expensive (they're not really), the best alternative is actually that label tape for those old school machines that press a letter into the tape to make it go white. I have some of that over my amp's power light.
posted by krisjohn at 12:20 AM on February 13 [1 favorite]
Blue (and white) LEDs really did upend the world, or at least all the parts of it that depend on light. Blue LEDs were pretty damn rare for most of a decade after they finally went into production because the price was still so high, so I well remember being surprised when I'd see them. Also how damned blinding they were in the dark. Surprisingly good illumination, but there really should have been a label saying "do not stare into beam" on any product using them. These days, tiny low power ones are made that just provide a cheerful confirmation blink, thankfully.
But yeah, we can all kvetch, but my TV uses less than half the power my much smaller CCFL backlit TV ever did. A large part of why my laptop lasts 4-6 times on battery as one from 20 years ago is, again, LED lighting. The move to SSDs helped (but less than you think), as have newer CPUs, but for light workloads a surprising amount of it is just the lower power draw to keep the damn thing lit up.
One downside of this, however, is that the transflective display is basically dead now, so you're stuck burning through energy like there's no tomorrow to be able to use portable devices in direct sunlight.
And that's not even getting into the benefits for street lighting and home lighting! Yes, LED streetlights have some problems to go with their advantages, not least of which is that one of my easiest arguments for improved lighting design (you'll save a ton of money!) got neutered, but on balance I think it'll be more than worth it once we get over some of the teething pains.
Same with cars, actually. The problem isn't so much the LEDs themselves, it's shit regulation that has allowed and even encouraged poorly designed lamp assemblies to proliferate despite the technology to make them better headlights than any previous lighting technology being readily available and in use outside the US (Personally, I've always found LED taillights to be worse than headlights. Something about the combination of the color and the commonly used PWM frequencies drives my eyes much more mad than simple glare ever could)
posted by wierdo at 3:08 AM on February 13 [4 favorites]
But yeah, we can all kvetch, but my TV uses less than half the power my much smaller CCFL backlit TV ever did. A large part of why my laptop lasts 4-6 times on battery as one from 20 years ago is, again, LED lighting. The move to SSDs helped (but less than you think), as have newer CPUs, but for light workloads a surprising amount of it is just the lower power draw to keep the damn thing lit up.
One downside of this, however, is that the transflective display is basically dead now, so you're stuck burning through energy like there's no tomorrow to be able to use portable devices in direct sunlight.
And that's not even getting into the benefits for street lighting and home lighting! Yes, LED streetlights have some problems to go with their advantages, not least of which is that one of my easiest arguments for improved lighting design (you'll save a ton of money!) got neutered, but on balance I think it'll be more than worth it once we get over some of the teething pains.
Same with cars, actually. The problem isn't so much the LEDs themselves, it's shit regulation that has allowed and even encouraged poorly designed lamp assemblies to proliferate despite the technology to make them better headlights than any previous lighting technology being readily available and in use outside the US (Personally, I've always found LED taillights to be worse than headlights. Something about the combination of the color and the commonly used PWM frequencies drives my eyes much more mad than simple glare ever could)
posted by wierdo at 3:08 AM on February 13 [4 favorites]
I remember watching blue LEDs go very quickly from "Symbol of luxury and futuristic development" to "cheap chintz" as production ramped up. I worked at a company that produced computers, and they were often criticised as "They cancelled the models that actually fit our niches, just to put out crap that crammed blue LEDs into every corner of the rack panel!"
It's a bit like what happened to truffle oil and aspic/gelatine: once scarcity was gone, we overexposed ourselves and it just seemed tacky.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 7:29 AM on February 13 [3 favorites]
It's a bit like what happened to truffle oil and aspic/gelatine: once scarcity was gone, we overexposed ourselves and it just seemed tacky.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 7:29 AM on February 13 [3 favorites]
So does this explain why we had to have a blue background before we could have a professional looking white background?
posted by TedW at 7:37 AM on February 13 [5 favorites]
posted by TedW at 7:37 AM on February 13 [5 favorites]
Put me down in the "I hate blue LEDs" category. For example, the keyboard I am using right now has multiple layers of artist's tape covering the num lock light because otherwise the intensity/bandwidth/whatever is intolerable, and I'm hoping the keyboard I sent off for repair before going on vacation isn't just replaced with a new one, since it predates the change to blue leds.
posted by mikelieman at 7:44 AM on February 13 [2 favorites]
posted by mikelieman at 7:44 AM on February 13 [2 favorites]
That was an incredible story. Nakamura is a so precious, I am in awe of his focus and drive. Also, I never really bothered to learn how LEDs work and this video was a very good basic introduction to them.
posted by numaner at 8:28 AM on February 13 [5 favorites]
posted by numaner at 8:28 AM on February 13 [5 favorites]
Oh, you kids. I love LEDs, have since their early 70s introduction (which was courtesy James Bond, checking his new digital watch at the beginning of "Live and Let Die"). Which was of course red, the only color they came in, for a while. Wonderfully deep ruby laser red. Then we got green LEDs - but not really green, this kind of washed-out chartreuse color. And a golden yellow, which was okay. And that's all we had, for the longest time, decades. If you wanted little blue lights, you had to use incandescents, probably with blue plastic filters; but maybe utilizing that other great source of blue light, cobalt blue glass. (In its best manifestation, for rich blue light, cobalt blue neon tubes containing ionized mercury-argon.) But these lights sources wouldn't match, and that green, phew. And then, suddenly, Shuji-san - the go-to article about him I refer to was in a very early edition of Wired: True Boo-Roo from 1995 (archive link). Shortly after their introduction the beautiful, truly green LEDs appeared, a lot of people first noticing them in traffic lights. Strong powerful colors for the 21st century... and there must be whole county-sized warehouses full of those old chartreuse-green LEDs that've got to be used up, you still see 'em popping up everywhere, like in that ridiculously over-engineered battery-operated Covid test. And another technology nobody's mentioned yet, amidst the kvetching, is the BluRay DVD, made possible with lasing blue LEDs' shorter wavelengths. All Hail True Blue, and Shuji Nakamura's accolades, ranging from his initial $200 bonus to his shared Nobel Prize.
posted by Rash at 8:49 AM on February 13 [6 favorites]
posted by Rash at 8:49 AM on February 13 [6 favorites]
the BluRay DVD, made possible with lasing blue LEDs' shorter wavelengths
I had no idea that's why they were called BluRay!
posted by misskaz at 9:33 AM on February 13 [4 favorites]
I had no idea that's why they were called BluRay!
posted by misskaz at 9:33 AM on February 13 [4 favorites]
As much as I hate overpowered colored car headlights, I've been a fan of colored gadget lights ever since watching Star Trek in the late sixties; the need for them to perform any actual useful function is purely secondary.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:25 AM on February 13 [6 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:25 AM on February 13 [6 favorites]
I was doing a network product eval for a large client in the early/mid-90s when blue LEDs were the new hotness but before they really took off. One of the vendors (startup, early stage, didn't make it) and I were talking about how nifty they looked and how everyone was going to want them and such, and as a joke I slipped "blue led power light" as a low-rank requirement in the RFP. The big guys of course said "very funny", but this startup went through some interesting gymnastics to source the blue LEDs and do a small run of their product with them for the PoC. Everyone noticed the blue lights. Unfortunately, not everything about that startup was as impressive, and someone else won the bakeoff.
posted by kjs3 at 10:42 AM on February 13 [1 favorite]
posted by kjs3 at 10:42 AM on February 13 [1 favorite]
Blu-ray and DVD are different things. There are technological differences despite them looking similar.
-> While a DVD uses a 650 nm red laser, Blu-ray Disc uses a 405 nm "blue" laser diode. Although the laser is called "blue", its color is actually in the violet range.posted by achrise at 12:37 PM on February 13 [2 favorites]
I think I've said this before on the blue (heh), but I remember seeing an electronics catalog at a local modem user's meetup that was most likely in 1993-ish.
Everyone was oohing over the single blue 5mm LED that you could buy for $21. $44 in today money.
Now I have hundreds of them in a drawer I never even open. Time sure passes, huh?
posted by Horkus at 7:00 PM on February 13
Everyone was oohing over the single blue 5mm LED that you could buy for $21. $44 in today money.
Now I have hundreds of them in a drawer I never even open. Time sure passes, huh?
posted by Horkus at 7:00 PM on February 13
With some spatial albums beginning to be released on BluRay as the preferred format now, as opposed to 5.1 on DVD, I may have to get a BluRay player for music.
I enjoy having movies here and there well enough, and do try to own the ones that really mean something to me, but I'm completely fascinated with surround audio, going back to when I first experienced quadrophonic records that the father of one of my friends had back in the Seventies.
So much of modern spatial audio is trapped on streaming platforms, but a few bits of it are coming out on physical media. And that could tempt me into getting a player.
posted by hippybear at 7:10 PM on February 13
I enjoy having movies here and there well enough, and do try to own the ones that really mean something to me, but I'm completely fascinated with surround audio, going back to when I first experienced quadrophonic records that the father of one of my friends had back in the Seventies.
So much of modern spatial audio is trapped on streaming platforms, but a few bits of it are coming out on physical media. And that could tempt me into getting a player.
posted by hippybear at 7:10 PM on February 13
Now I have hundreds of them in a drawer I never even open.
hook your drawer up to 240v roast beef blind the sun
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 7:30 PM on February 13 [3 favorites]
hook your drawer up to 240v roast beef blind the sun
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 7:30 PM on February 13 [3 favorites]
My favourite blue LED device was the Nokia 8250.
I had a phone repair shop swap the blue keypad LEDs with white LEDs which, in combination with a clear faceplate, produced excellent utility illumination. It retained the night-vision-killing blue LED display backlight but that was less of a concern now that my phone was also a makeshift floodlight. I miss how small that phone was. Damn thing even had voice recognition.
posted by neonamber at 8:24 PM on February 13 [1 favorite]
I had a phone repair shop swap the blue keypad LEDs with white LEDs which, in combination with a clear faceplate, produced excellent utility illumination. It retained the night-vision-killing blue LED display backlight but that was less of a concern now that my phone was also a makeshift floodlight. I miss how small that phone was. Damn thing even had voice recognition.
posted by neonamber at 8:24 PM on February 13 [1 favorite]
Also, shoutout to Veritasium for doing a good job explaining charge mobility, p/n-type semiconductors, and band gaps. I feel like my Solid State Components course would have been a tad easier if I’d had this video back in the early ‘00s.
Even though I knew the physics behind this (at one point in time lol), it still amazes me that the entire digital age is based on making some crystals kiss.
posted by sbutler at 8:45 PM on February 13 [2 favorites]
Even though I knew the physics behind this (at one point in time lol), it still amazes me that the entire digital age is based on making some crystals kiss.
posted by sbutler at 8:45 PM on February 13 [2 favorites]
Bully for Nakamura’s mix of skills and tendencies that got him across the finish line but I have to wonder if he is the only one who spent years of his life and risked his job tilting at this windmill. Of course we’d never hear about the ones who failed!
Yes, this can function as the sort of inspirational story many of us grow up hearing. But it's also the seed of failure and madness for those who think of themselves as persecuted and misunderstood outsiders who are on the cusp of inventing a perpetual motion machine or discovering the truth about covid, etc.
posted by 2N2222 at 9:35 AM on February 14 [2 favorites]
Yes, this can function as the sort of inspirational story many of us grow up hearing. But it's also the seed of failure and madness for those who think of themselves as persecuted and misunderstood outsiders who are on the cusp of inventing a perpetual motion machine or discovering the truth about covid, etc.
posted by 2N2222 at 9:35 AM on February 14 [2 favorites]
I think the difference in this story is the way in which the advances in particle deposition processes would have been worthwhile results, even if it turned out that blue LEDs were never going to be marketable.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 9:00 AM on February 15
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 9:00 AM on February 15
I started this video last month and just finished the last couple minutes this morning. Pretty wild example of the story EVERY scientist working in industry hears 1,000 times. Work hard but that company WILL screw you over the second it gets a chance. And while the lawsuit/counter-suit bitter fued isn't surprising, it's wild that Nichia still doesn't want to associate after the Nobel prize and Nakamura expressed the desire to bury the hatchet. Like that's nothing but a PR boon for a company but instead it'd rather continue appearing petty and greedy... for no reason?
posted by midmarch snowman at 4:45 AM on March 10
posted by midmarch snowman at 4:45 AM on March 10
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posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 5:49 PM on February 12 [27 favorites]