The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Monday announced four research programs to be funded under a $6.4 million program to fund solid-state lighting research. Three national laboraties and an Army lab will receive funds under the program for LED and organic LED research.

DOE said these selections under its Solid-State Lighting Core Technology Research program focus on improving the efficiency and quality of solid-state white light sources. The following four research programs will be awarded the fund:

• The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (Golden, Colo.) will receive $1.8 million to demonstrate the viability of high bandgap gallium indium phosphide alloys for use in making green LEDs.
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• Sandia National Laboriatories (Albuquerque, N.M.) will conduct research aimed at improving the efficiency of green LEDs grown on gallium nitride substrates.
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• U.S. Army Research Laboratory (Adelphi, Md.) will seek to exploit the negative polarization charge to improve the efficiency of green LEDs. The Army lab also received $1.8 million in stimulus funding.
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• Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Richland, Wash.) will receive $1 million to develop new, stable materials for high-efficiency blue organic LEDs.
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• DOE said the research projects aim to plug gaps in current LED and organic LED technologies.