A research team has reported their achievement of, "the most efficient and stable source of pure white light ever achieved." They are referring to their new approach to creating a LED, or light-emitting-diode, which emits pure white light.

The task has been referred to as the lighting industry's quest for the Holy Grail, and this achievement is anticipated to speed progress towards being able to use LED lighting in homes and offices.

Why the emphasis on LED technology? LEDs are extremely efficient and long lasting. Use in the home would provide the dual benefits of requiring less electricity to run them and save many those trips to find replacement bulbs for burned out lights.

The developmental research project is being carried out by a multi-national team of scientists from the Seoul National University in Korea, University of Valencia in Spain and the Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies, also in Spain.

Small-scale LED lighting devices are fairly common, but developing practical scale lighting is the next hurdle. The existing technology produces tinted shades of white light and becomes unstable. The components are also fairly complex.

This new development has resulted in a simpler white LED that produces stable white light emissions through the use of a specially engineered molecule. A blue light-emitting material is combined into one molecule with one that emits orange. Together the emissions produce stable white light.

LED research is also being conducted at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where a breakthrough was reported earlier this year in designing a power LED that retains efficiency at high current. LED devices are known to be most efficient when being run on low-density currents. The higher current necessary to power the desired light emission has previously resulted in lowered efficiency.