Physics spring colloquium series begins Jan. 26 Physics spring colloquium series begins Jan. 26

The physics spring colloquium series will feature Julius Muschaweck, principal key expert for Optican Design at OSRAM, at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 26, in 128 Jabara Hall. The lighting company Sylvania is a subsidiary of OSRAM, which is a subsidiary of Siemens. Muschaweck will present "LEDs: An Inside Look."

LEDs currently promise to become the fourth technology revolution in general lighting -- after the candle, the incandescent bulb and gas discharge lamps -- due to their superior efficiency.

They convert electricity from the wall plug in several steps to light in the room, and each step has its own fundamental and practical efficiency limits. The talk will focus on what happens to the light from its creation in the p-n-junction until it has left the chip. It turns out that it is the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which makes it so difficult to couple this light out of the chips.