Take a look (and also see this article).

LEDs are fantastic. But for a long time, they’ve been fantastic more because of what we think they can do than what they actually do. We’ve been pretty sure that LEDs can produce warm, white light at efficiencies far beyond even the much-touted compact fluorescent bulbs. But we’ve yet to actually see that.

Years ago, scientists were already producing LEDs that were far more efficient than fluorescents. The problem was, they only did it at very specific wavelengths. So the light was either pure red, or pure orange, or pure blue. And while it’d be nice to have an efficiently lit workspace…I’d prefer it if everything in my life wasn’t purple.

So in the last ten years, scientists have switched their goals from producing efficient LEDs to producing “natural light” LEDs. Unfortunately, whenever they did this, they had to make significant efficiency sacrifices. Well, here’s the breakthrough — those days are no more.

Using a nano-crystaline coating, scientists at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey have created an LED that produces attractive white light while wasting next-to-no electricity . For every watt of light produced, about 300 lumens are visible to the human eye. Fluorescents produce about 80 lumens per watt, and other white LEDs are closer to 60. 300 lumens per watt is two times more visible light per watt of radiation than I’ve ever heard of for any light source, and they’ve done it with natural-looking light.

Honestly, the results are so spectacular that I must admit a bit of skepticism. If anyone can cast some light on how efficiencies like this could be possible, I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

The nano-crystalline coating bends the wavelengths exiting the light into a broad spectrum. The key is that the process is nearly 100% efficient, and the LEDs themselves, (which are blue) are extremely efficient as well.

Of course, any scientist will tell you that making something happen in a laboratory and putting it on a shelf at Wal-Mart are two very different things. The nano-crystalline coating is very expensive and difficult to produce, and, so far, there aren’t a lot of ideas as to how to mass produce these things. But the question is no longer “if”….the question is now “when” and that’s a breakthrough that I can celebrate.