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Japan’s best known technology maven is not as well known outside of Japan, but Shuji Nakamura’s research into creating new LEDs has revolutionized lighting. From nifty new flashlights with extraordinary candlepower and low battery consumption to automobile headlights to mega-dense CD and DVD players, Nakamura’s amazing advances in LED and laser research put him at the forefront of Japanese researchers in materials technology.
As anyone who has had to purchase lighting in Japan knows, it is far more expensive than equivalent lighting outside of Japan. Part of this money goes to pay for the world-class research and development in the lighting industry. One of the smaller players has been a company called Nichia. Nichia was where Nakamura developed the blue LED which was followed by derivative green and white LEDs. Blue LEDs have several applications where blue light with its higher frequency and shorter wavelengths are better than traditional green and red LEDs. Nakamura’s new version of green LEDs based on his blue LED provide a superior green to the older green LED technology.
The other great area of research in LEDS has been the work on white (clear light) LEDs, the fruits of which you can observe in the explosion of high-performance LED flashlights as well as soon-to-be introduced innovations such as headlamps and taillights for Audi’s Nuvolari Quattro. This amazing car (it was named after an Italian race car driver) which appears to have many technological advances, benefits not only from the power efficiency of LEDs over traditional incadescent lighting, but also from the space efficiency that LEDs have over traditional lighting.
Not content with being the virtuouso of the LED, Nakamura then created the blue laser. This device, which is taking us to far higher density on optical computer media, is now showing up in the commercial world. Sony is selling (in Japan only, as usual for product introductions) a 23 gigabyte blue laser DVD player, far beyond the standard 4.7 gigabyte unit sold in the U.S. markets. You can find it at Sony’s site (www.sony.co.jp) by looking for product BDZ-S77, and look for the entry labeled “Sony Style.” It can be yours today for ¥417,000 (just under US$4,000.)
Sony has started shipping a blue laser product into the U.S. market for simple data storage in December of 2003, but it was targeted at the high-end professional market, including x-ray imaging and and other transient data archiving.
Amazon carries Nakamura’s book on his achievements, The Blue Laser Diode: The Complete Story, ISBN 3540665056. It’s currently listed as shipping with 24 hours.
