Researchers from the Institute of low temperature and structure research in Wroclaw, Poland, developed a new efficient white light source that uses graphene foam excitated by a continuous-wave laser. The laser opens up a bandgap in graphene which results in light emission that ranges from 360nm (UV) or 405nm (visible) to 980nm-1064nm (near-infrared).

The researchers say that the light spectrum of this device is similar to the spectrum of the sun which is better than current light sources such as LEDs that offer light spectrum with strong peaks (the main problem is the strong blue light emission in LED lighting). This design can achieve a high efficiency (over 200 lm/W), high color rendering index (CRI > 99) and a broadband warm white color. The lifetime depends on the laser, which can be over 10,000 hours.

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