Success in Trial Manufacture of Far-UV Surface Plane Emitting Device based on h-BN

Dr. Kenji Watanabe, Senior Researcher, and Dr. Takashi Taniguchi, Senior Researcher, of the Optronic Materials Center (Managing Director: Naoki Ohashi), National Institute for Materials Science (President: Sukekatsu Ushioda), in joint work with the Research & Development Center of Futaba Corporation, succeeded in the development of a palm-sized far ultra-violet (far-UV) surface light emitting device (LED) based on high purity hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) as a light emitting layer and field emitter arrays as an excitation source. The prototype device has a compact size of 65 x 35 x 12 mm and a light emitting area of 27 mm². Its maximum output is 0.2 mW (wavelength: 225 nm). Taking advantage of the small operating current of the device, the group succeeded in trial manufacture of a portable far-UV light source, which can be operated with dry-cell batteries.
High expectations are placed on compact, high efficiency LEDs for the far-UV band as a new eco-type far-UV light source with excellent energy saving performance and a mercury-free composition. The diverse range of potential applications includes light sources for decomposition treatment of environmental pollutants using photocatalysts, and use as a substitute for conventional mercury lamps for the use of sterilization in hospitals and food processing, among others.
As another distinctive feature of the prototype device, in spite of its compact, palm-sized dimensions, the new LED has a monochromatic light output with a wavelength of 225nm, enabling application as a compact far-UV (UV-C) cold-light source which does not require an infrared filter.

Advanced on-line Publication (AOP) on Nature Photonics’s website on September 20, 18:00 (London time; which is the following day, September 21, 2:00a.m., Japan time).
DOI: 10.1038/NPHOTON.2009.167