光耀21世纪的半导体照明

Semiconductor illumination brightening the 21st Century

在日常生活中，人们对周围的认知主要依赖视觉。据文献记载约90％的信息是通过视觉获取的。人们除了睡眠之外，几乎一切活动都是在光亮的环境中进行。在人工照明发明之前，人类只能依赖自然光。但仅仅依赖自然光只能被动地过着日出而作、日落而息的生活。可以想象先民们太希望能有太阳的替代物在夜间点亮人们的生活．

The Nobel Prize in physics 2014 awarded the inventors of blue light emitting diodes(LED), I.Akasaki,H.Amano and S.Nakamura.This article reviews the laureates' work in connection with the history of illumination and the process of developing blue LEDs. It is also discussed what the Chinese researchers can learn from it.