Three Japanese scientists – Shuji Nakamura, Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano – became the Nobel Prize winners in physics this year. As noted by the representative of the Nobel Committee, the prize is awarded in the name of “light”.

The symbolic phrase did not turn out to be empty, since the noted physicists have invented the invention of efficient blue-range LEDs, which are energy-saving and bright sources of white light. Two of the scholars, Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano, represent Nagoya University. Their colleague – Shuji Nakamura – works at the American University of California (Santa Barbara).

Russian scientists from the Physico-Technical Institute (PTI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences highly appreciated the achievements of the Japanese. It is known that lighting accounts for about 40% of all electricity consumption in the world. According to Pyotr Kopyev, director of the Physics Center for Nanoheterostructures at the Physicotechnical Institute, replacing at least half of the existing light sources with new LED ones will save up to 10% of electricity on a global scale.

The merit of the Japanese is not only in the invention of efficient LEDs as such. Among other things, physicists have developed a special technology for the production of promising light sources with characteristics most suitable for use in various fields.