Lasers & Sources

Making incandescent bulbs incredibly efficient using photonic crystals

Jan. 12, 2016

This is being hailed as a breakthrough; here are some earlier stories from the Laser Focus World archives on the same topic.

John Wallace

A nanophotonic comeback for incandescent bulbs?

from (e) Science News

Traditional light bulbs, thought to be well on their way to oblivion, may receive a reprieve thanks to a technological breakthrough. Incandescent lighting and its warm, familiar glow is well over a century old yet survives virtually unchanged in homes around the world. That is changing fast, ...

Read original article at (e) Science News

The Laser Focus World take:

This is being hailed as a breakthrough; I would just like to highlight here a number of news stories from the Laser Focus World archives that describe earlier research, including by MIT, on this very topic (tungsten light emitter/absorber augmented with a photonic crystal).June 2002 Laser Focus World: Tungsten lattice turns excess heat into lightDecember 2008 Laser Focus World: Optimized tungsten photonic-crystal emitters outdo blackbodies in IR bandsJuly 2011 Laser Focus World: MIT researchers use tungsten photonic crystals to boost the efficiency of thermophotovoltaic cells

And here's one in which thin-film coatings rather than photonic crystals were used to achieve more-efficient incandescent illumination in tungsten:

August 2010 Laser Focus World: LIGHTING: Tailored emissivity paves way for 400 lm/W incandescent lamps

About the Author

John Wallace | Senior Technical Editor (1998-2022)

John Wallace was with Laser Focus World for nearly 25 years, retiring in late June 2022. He obtained a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and physics at Rutgers University and a master's in optical engineering at the University of Rochester. Before becoming an editor, John worked as an engineer at RCA, Exxon, Eastman Kodak, and GCA Corporation.