Global awareness on light-based technologies highlighted

                                             

The International Year of Light 2015 celebrations organised by the School of Physical Sciences of Periyar University here on Wednesday highlighted the importance of raising global awareness on how light-based technologies promote sustainable development and provide solutions to global challenges in energy, education, agriculture and health. 

In proclaiming an International Year focusing on the topic of light science, the United Nations has recognised the importance of raising global awareness on these issues. 

P.K. Das, Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, in his keynote address, said that light plays a vital role in the universe and is a source of all forms of life. 

Prof. Das said light is an imperative element cross-cutting discipline of science in the 21st century. The three most important sources of light that impact life are the sun, the Light Emitting Diodes (LED) and the lasers. 

In recent years, the solar photovoltaic process is most prominently used for conversion of sunlight into electrical energy through a variety of semiconductors.

With petroleum energy sources getting exhausted rapidly, solar energy is the only clean energy option that can meet the energy requirements of our future generations. 

The LED is a tiny source of light that is not only lighting up the world in a big way but also creating high resolution display screens for smart phones, computers and televisions.

LED lamps are replacing fluorescent tubelights rapidly. The high resolution display screens are made up of white LEDs. 

Prof. Das said that laser, soon after its invention in 1960, it brought revolution and gave birth to several new branches of science and engineering. 

Advancements

Advancements in nonlinear optics, holography, precision cutting, welding and drilling, laser-guided defence equipment, and most importantly optical telecommunication and laser-based surgical appliances having been possible only because of the laser. 

Lasers have made our world very small through optical telecommunication. Raman spectroscopy would have become obsolete but for birth of laser.

Photoluminescence, another phenomenon that depends on light, helps to understand the light emitting behaviour of scintillating materials which are used in The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator.