Szines, elektronikus papírok

Research shows that photonic crystals can change color as quickly as other technologies. Researchers at the University of Toronto, in Ontario, have increased the speed of their new color-changing material tenfold. The material, which uses photonic crystals, reflects bright, intense light of any color from red to blue, switching color based on the voltage applied to it. The technology could enable brighter, flexible color displays for electronic readers and billboards. „To get color changes that go across from UV all the way to near infrared - it's the only material on the planet that can do it," says chemistry professor Geoffrey Ozin, who led the new work. "All I'm doing here is with one material tuning the voltage." Reading devices such as the Amazon Kindle, the Sony Reader, and Plastic Logic's new reader use a black-and-white e-paper from Boston's E Ink. E-paper reflects light instead of emitting it, which makes it less power hungry and easier to read in bright sunlight. Displays using a color version of E Ink's technology are expected to reach the market in the next few years, but their pixels will be divided into three subpixels, with red, green, and blue filters. Light from the subpixels is mixed in varying intensities to produce different colors. "That means you just have one-third of the [pixel] area that displays red," says Jacques Angele, cofounder of the French e-paper company Nemoptic. "So you reduce brightness by a factor not far from three." The key advantage of the new technology is that the photonic crystal making each pixel can be tuned to emit different colors. "In principle, they should be able to get good brightness more similar to printed paper, compared to current e-paper technology," Angele says. Increasing the speed with which the material changes color moves it one step closer to practical applications.

IT3 komment:

Az elektronikus papír ugyanis egy vékony, ultraflexibilis kijelző. Az ideális "elektronikus papír", papírvékony, rugalmas, alacsony fogyasztású, szines, méretezhető, valamint a rajta megjelenő kép olyan gyosan változtatható, hogy mozgókép lejátszására is alkalmas, továbbá az előállítása alacsony költségű. Olyan eszközt, amely mindezen kritériumoknak megfelelne eddig még senki sem tudott megalkotni. Egy kanadai kutatócsoportnak nemrég sikerült az általuk 2 évvel ezelőtt kifejlesztett, különböző színek megjelenítésére alkalmas fotonikus kristályokból álló anyag esetében megoldaniuk azt, hogy a megjelenített kép színét viszonylag gyorsan megváltoztassák.

Forrás: Technology Review