Scientists Just Made a Lightbulb That’s One Atom Thick

Daily Beast ^ | 06.19.15 | G. Clay Whittaker

[Second Amendment First]

My son has been doing similar research for several years doping gallium to grow nanowires, then creating tools to manipulate them. The result is paired nanowires, one tipped with a LED and the other with a receptor, in a variety of wave lengths. A huge step forward in sizing optic fibers.

[ShadowAce]

[edpc]

Problem is, the switch is too small to find. I haven’t slept properly for weeks and my electric bill is insane.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

LOL!

[Moonman62]

One of these days they’ll come up with a commercial use for graphene. So far it’s only been a windfall for researchers.

[circlecity]

But how many physicists does it take to screw it in?

[George from New England]

Need more info ...

Are the physicists Polish ?

[MPJackal]

Really? A Polish Physicist? Come on, you are better than that.

[SamuraiScot]

If graphene responds to heat even better than tungsten, doesn't that imply that you could use it to make longer-lasting, more efficient, incandescent light bulbs?

Anyone know what the color spectrum is like?

[aquila48]

Young Duck Kim.

[rjsimmon]

Anyone know what the color spectrum is like?

It's really bright at one end, but radically tapers off from there...

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Understanding the atom and electron, nuclear physics, uranium isotope separation, tansistors, lasers, ICs, optical fibers, gigahertz switching speeds...all took a long time from fundamental research to first market at particles to wide-scale use. It doesn’t happen overnight. Yet all these occurred within one lifetime.

[Red Badger]

[Steely Tom]

I've been wondering... what happens if you heat a nanoparticle - that is a solid particle made up of atoms that is much smaller than a wavelength of visible light - to a temperature high enough to cause a black body to radiate in the visible or infrared wavelength range.

In other words, what happens if a particle of matter is heated up enough to radiate light, but the particle much smaller than the wavelength of the light it is trying to emit. Does it still emit? If so, how? Does it "bottle up" heat inside itself until its temperature gets high enough to emit at a wavelength compatible with its size? For some nanoparticles, such a temperature would vaporize them or even ionize them.

Can a point source be a tiny fraction of one wavelength in its longest dimension?

[Red Badger]

Young Duck Kimsky....................

[Second Amendment First]

I certainly can’t answer your question. Way over my head.

[Boogieman]

“In other words, what happens if a particle of matter is heated up enough to radiate light, but the particle much smaller than the wavelength of the light it is trying to emit. Does it still emit? If so, how?”

Yes, it still emits. I think what is tripping you up is thinking that it needs to emit the whole wavelength. It doesn’t. It just needs to emit a single photon, which is practically 2 dimensional. The photon is what oscillates over the wavelength, after it is emitted.

[SamuraiScot]

Anyone know what the color spectrum is like?

It's really bright at one end, but radically tapers off from there...

I knew I could count on you!

[erkelly]

Why would anyone want to polish a physicist anyway?

[WKUHilltopper]

“By creating a filament that glows bright enough to be seen by the naked eye...”

A candle wick glows bright enough to be seen by the naked eye.