This is scientific American 60 second science. I'm Christopher Intagiyata.

LEDs use only a quarter of the energy of incandescent bulbs, but despite their efficiency, there's one thing they're not that good at.

They have a hard time giving directional light.

Sangam Chatterjee, a physicist at the University of Marburg and the University of Giesen in Germany. Chatterjee and his colleagues may have fixed that.

They have devised a highly focused but still energy efficient light beam

by starting with something that's already a highly focused beam, a laser. The key is what they shoot the laser at, a substance with a

particular structure. I'm always tempted to say white powdery substance but I

guess there's some connotation on that. They synthesize the material from cages of tin and

sulfur atoms decorated with hydrocarbon molecules. The laser-produced infrared

light, which the human eye cannot see, goes in, but what comes out are many different optical

wavelengths. It's a molecular light converter. It basically changes the color of the

light while retaining the directionality of the laser.

So you can make something like a white laser beam

containing many, many colors.

That mix of colors overall close bright white, like a halogen bulb and a beam.

The studies in the journal Science.

This sort of low energy focused white beam could be used for the very small, like a light

source for microscopes, to the very big.

You could use this for a spotlight in the theater.

And in the end, it should be much more energy efficient

than a typical standard spotlight.

Meaning focused white light that takes a little heat off the environment.

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