Solid-State Lighting

Abstract: Throughout its history, lighting technology has made tremendous progress: the efficiency with which power is converted into usable light has increased 2.8 orders of magnitude over three centuries. This progress has, in turn, fueled large increases in the consumption of light and productivity of human society. In this talk, we review an emerging new technology, solid-state lighting: the underlying advances in physics and materials that have enabled its current performance; its frontier performance potential; the energy consumption and human productivity benefits associated with achieving this performance potential; and scientific challenges that lie enroute.