The thinnest light bulb was created from graphene, which is the new wonder material that formed out of a layer of atoms. The minuscule light that was created in this manner for the first time in history was even visible to the human eye. The layer of graphene was turned into an incandescent material which burned at a temperature of 2500 degrees C.
The team that made this possible consisted of Young Duck Kim and James Hone, both researchers at Columbia Engineering, Seoul National University, and Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science. The brilliant team of researchers began the operation by first attaching small portions of graphene to electrodes and then suspended them over a substrate. Finally they passed electric current through it and the “filament” lighted up just like a regular one and the technological miracle happened.
The new extra small light bulb will be integrated into chips and it will smooth the way for optical communication that relies on graphene. The innovation will prove to be extremely useful for a lot of new technologies and products, the first of them being the photonic circuits, using light as a fuel, just like electric current was used in the past. And the past was just yesterday.
The experiment which was successful now, was also tried before in the past, many times. The researchers were not able to succeed in lighting the special type of bulb before because extremely tiny metal wires were used, and when they reached really high temperatures, they almost melted.
When they observed this, the astute team measured the light span again and observed that the graphene allowed for higher temperatures to be reached, even above 2500 degrees Celsius. Another positive aspect is that the material does not conduct heat very well it reaches high temperatures. The heat only concentrates in some small areas, so it actually is the perfect material for this kind of operation.
Graphene was discovered by two Russian scientists that are currently at the University of Manchester, and the spectacular material is very resistant, as well as very light, these aspects making it ideal for conducting electricity.
Image source: independent.co.uk
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