Researchers at the University of Manchester (led by Novoselov, one of the original isolators of graphene and Nobel winner) and University of Sheffield have developed a prototype of a semi-transparent graphene-based LED device that could lay the foundation for flexible screens, to be used in next-gen mobile phones, tablets and TVs. This extremely thin display (about 10-40 atoms thick) was created using sandwiched "heterostructures" and emits a sheet of light across its entire surface.
The 2D LED comprises of metallic graphene, hexagonal boron nitride and various semiconducting monolayers. This prototype shows that graphene (combined with other flexible 2D materials) is not just limited to simple electronic displays, but could be exploited to create light emitting devices that are thin, flexible, semi-transparent and intrinsically bright.
The researchers claim that this novel LED structure is robust enough to withstand many weeks of measurements up until now and hope that it will form the basis for various optoelectronic devices, lighting products and advanced displays.
