'Blue LED' inventors awarded with Nobel Prize for Physics 2014

The 2014 Nobel Prize for physics has been awarded to the inventors of blue LEDs, a trio of scientists in Japan and the US namely, Professors Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura.

The invention had enabled a new generation of bright, energy-efficient white lamps, as well as colour LED screens. High-energy blue light could be used to excite phosphorus and directly produce white light - the basis of the next generation of light bulb, the BBC reported.

LED lamps have the potential to help more than 1.5 billion people around the world who do not have access to electricity grids - because they are efficient enough to run on cheap and local solar power.

The winners, who were named at a press conference in Sweden, and join a prestigious list of 196 other Physics laureates recognized since 1901, will share prize money of eight million kronor.