Forget CFLs and LEDs ... Quantum dots are the future!
OK, so they're still LEDs, but this new form of LED is so much better than your daddy's. While very efficient, today's LEDs can produce various wavelengths of light only when they hit the coating of the bulbs that house them, excite the atoms they encounter (usually phosphorus for white light) and of course, lose energy as heat. Not so with quantum-dot lighting.
Quantum-dot lighting works by employing quantum-dots (semiconducting material a few nanometers in diameter) of various sizes, that get excited by a light source and radiate wavelengths corresponding to their size. The white light produced by quantum-dots is far superior to current LEDs -- approaching that of full spectrum light. That should be a great selling point for people who simply can't get over the "cold" light produced by today's LEDs and CFLs. On top of being more visually pleasing, quantum-dot lighting is about 50% more efficient than current LEDs.
This video was compiled from fluorescing colloidal quantum dots of different sizes excited by an argon laser. The dots are invisible (with one exception in a microscope at 2:14) but they produce the bright colors in the beam. The bits of bright blue flashes are dust particles in the solutions.
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