Nobel winners Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura got $180 for inventing blue LED

LONDON: The inventors of blue light emitting diodes, that hold the promise to brighten up the quality of life of over 1.5 billion people around the world who lack access to electricity grids, was awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize for physics on Tuesday.

Professors Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura made the first blue LEDs in the early 1990s.

The Japan-born trio were rewarded for inventing an energy-efficient and environment-friendly light source.

The winners will share the prize money of 8 million kronor (£700,000).

Nakamura — a naturalized US citizen and a professor at the University of California — joined Nichia Corporation in Tokushima after his master's in 1979, developed the blue LED on his own in 1993 after Nichia had ordered him to suspend work on it, claiming it was consuming too much time and money. He left the company in 1999.

In 2001, Nakamura sued Nichia after he was paid just $180 as bonus for the invention. Nichia secured lucrative patents for Nakamura's invention, which allowed the creation of more vibrant video billboards and traffic lights. Finally, Nakamura got $8.1 million from his former employers in 2005 and could be among the rare Nobel winners to have got the prize before completing a PhD.

Reacting to winning the prize, Nakamura who was woken up by the Nobel Committee when it shared the news with him, said, "this is unbelievable".

According to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the invention has revolutionized the field of illumination technology. LED lamps are flexible light sources, already with several applications in the field of illumination.

The committee chairman Staffan Normak said: "Alfred Nobel would have been very happy with this invention. Artificial light is all around us. The invention of the LED, however, will be highly beneficial and safer than older light sources. For example, fluorescent light has mercury whereas LEDs doesn't. In future, it can be used to sterilise water as we know that UV light can kill bacteria and viruses.

It has been known since 1671 that to get white light, we have to combine red, green and blue light. Red and green light has been around for half a century. Now we have blue which we can effectively mix and create new white light sources."

The LED lamp holds great promise as due to low power requirements it can be powered by cheap local solar power. As about one fourth of world electricity consumption is used for lighting purposes, the LEDs contribute to saving earth's resources. Materials consumption is also diminished as LEDs last up to 100,000 hours, compared to 1,000 for incandescent bulbs and 10,000 hours for fluorescent lights.

When Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura produced bright blue light beams from their semi-conductors in the early 1990s, they triggered a fundamental transformation of lighting technology. Red and green diodes had been around for a long time but without blue light, white lamps could not be created.

Despite considerable efforts, both in the scientific community and in industry, the blue LED had remained a challenge for three decades. They succeeded where everyone else had failed. The invention of the blue LED is just 20 years old, but it has already contributed to create white light in an entirely new manner for the benefit of us all.

Akasaki worked together with Amano at the University of Nagoya, while Nakamura was employed at Nichia Chemicals. The committee said: "When Akasaki, Amano and Nakamura arrive in Stockholm in early December to attend the Nobel Prize ceremony, they will hardly fail to notice the light from their invention glowing in virtually all the windows of the city.

Blue light remained a challenge for three decades. When they obtained bright blue light beams from their semi-conductors, the gates opened up for a fundamental transformation of illumination technology. Incandescent light bulbs had lit the 20th century; the 21st century will be lit by LED lamps."