藍色LED發明者獲諾貝爾物理學獎

Two Japanese scientists and a Japanese-American have won the 2014 Nobel Prize for Physics for inventing a new energy-efficient light source, the blue light-emitting diode (LED).

兩位日本科學家和一位日裔美籍科學家因發明節能的藍色發光二極管(LED)共同獲得2014年諾貝爾物理學獎。

“With the advent of LED lamps we now have more long lasting and more efficient alternatives to older light sources,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in its Nobel citation.

“LED燈的出現，使得我們在傳統光源之外，找到了更持久、更節能的光源，”瑞典皇家科學院在宣佈今年獲獎名單時說。“這項發明開啓了一場照明革命。 白熾燈泡照亮了20世紀，而21世紀將被LED燈照亮。”

Isamu Akasaki, 85, and Hiroshi Amano, 54, of Nagoya University and Shuji Nakamura, 60, of the University of California, Santa Barbara, share the $1.1m prize.

這三名獲獎人——來自名古屋大學的85歲的赤崎勇(Isamu Akasaki)和54歲的天野浩(Hiroshi Amano)，以及來自美國加州聖塔芭芭拉大學的60歲的中村修二(Shuji Nakamura)——將分享110萬美元的獎金。

The three men were the first to produce bright blue light from semiconductors, triggering “a fundamental transformation of lighting technology”. Red and green LEDs had been known for decades but previous attempts to make blue LEDs had failed.

這三位科學家發明了從半導體中產生高亮度藍色光的方法，帶來了“光技術領域一場根本性的變革”。紅色和綠色的LED光在數十年前就已出現，但藍色LED光一直是技術難題。

The laureates’ research in Japan in the early 1990s solved the problem – and opened a huge new market for LED lighting because white light can be produced by adding blue to green and red.

這三位獲獎者上世紀90年代初在日本的研究解決了這個難題。由於將藍光加入綠光和紅光中就能產生白光，他們的發明促成了一個巨大的LED光市場的產生。