By Dr. Jonathan Melman & David Shiller Japanese researchers led by Osaka University have published the discovery of a family of significantly more efficient organic, rare-metal-free, phosphorescent materials: thienyl diketones. Room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) without using rare metals has been an area of intense research. Most commercial RTP materials today utilize iridium or platinum, [...]

  A group of German researchers have created a new metamaterial that is more transparent than glass, diffuses sunlight, adds privacy, is anti-reflective, self-cleaning, reduces glare, and increases radiative cooling. The new thin film is a polymer-based micro-photonic multi-functional metamaterial or PMMM, that can be applied onto a pane of glass. The impressive collection of [...]

The first of two new rare sky glow phenomena was videoed in 2017, over Southwest Canada. It appeared closer to the equator than where auroras normally occur, and was a different color……purple! Auroras are red, blue, and green. This first new sky glow was dubbed STEVE, for Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement. After deeper investigation [...]

The American Lighting Association Engineering Committee recently received a presentation from the “Flicker Queen,” researcher Naomi Miller, at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Ms. Miller provided a summary of her latest research at PNNL on temporal light modulation (TLM), more commonly known as flicker. She and PNNL colleagues completed a human subjects study on the [...]

In March of 2023, LightNOW posted about translucent concrete. Today’s story is about a new translucent concrete made with recycled glass instead of optical fibers, fly ash, metallurgical slag, and water filtration sewage sludge to eliminate all cement from the concrete. Using all of these industrial waste materials makes the product extremely green and lower [...]

Graphene has long been hailed as the greatest material discovery with limitless potential. The reality is that graphene has seen some limited applications in electronics, solar panels, displays, clothing, helmets, bullet-proof armor, aircrafts, and shoes. I’ve written about graphene’s emergence in luminaire heat sinks and housings here. There are two new nanomaterial sheets making headlines: [...]

Research was published January 20, 2024, in the journal Lighting Research & Technology, about the potential benefits and risks of using red lights outdoors at night to reduce light pollution and its impacts on wildlife and humans. The paper is titled, Red light to mitigate light pollution: Is it possible to balance functionality and ecological [...]

  Square Roots, a controlled environment agriculture (CEA) startup, recently introduced a groundbreaking program supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The program aims to demonstrate the feasibility of removing light from commercial indoor vertical farming by utilizing gene-edited (CRISPR) plants that grow heterotrophically. These plants can add biomass through carbon uptake from acetate [...]

South Korean researchers have demonstrated a new approach to LiFi using a red, green, and blue (RGB) OLED array. The Pohang University of Science and Technology team utilized an organic photodiode (OPD) array as the receiver. Their study was published October 19, 2023, in the publication, Advanced Materials. The new approach to LiFi reduced interference [...]