Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 139 The Dawn of LED Lights
If we say that in the latter half of 1962, the American people's approval rating for Kennedy reached a new high due to the perfect resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the successful landing of Mercury 2 on Venus.

For China, their gains in 1962 were also considerable.

More than half a year later, the first Panda brand radio was widely praised around the world. With its cost-effectiveness, excellent circuit design and world-leading transistor materials, it successfully opened up a niche for itself in the Soviet Union.

In 1962, the total sales volume exceeded 10 units, and the cumulative number of orders approached 30 units.

After being reorganized and consolidated in the southwestern border region, Southwest Electric Company focused solely on production.

Pandas are transported from here to Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Africa.

As production capacity ramps up, first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai have successively obtained quotas for Panda brand vehicles.

Originally, people only read in the newspaper that this product was sold overseas and was very popular, symbolizing a breakthrough in Chinese technology. After seeing it with their own eyes, hearing it with their own ears, and feeling its texture with their own hands, the Chinese people had a more intuitive understanding of this technological breakthrough.

A product with a factory price of US$20 can immediately see its price soar to over HK$300 after being exported to Hong Kong through special channels.

Hong Kong began using the Hong Kong dollar as early as 1863, and from 1935 onwards it was forcibly pegged to the British pound through a fixed exchange rate. In other words, the fixed exchange rate was nominally in Hong Kong dollars, but in reality it was in British pounds.

英镑和港币的固定汇率是1比16，而英镑和美元的汇率从1949年英镑贬值后一直没有变过，要到1967年才变，一直稳定在1比2.8，也就是说1港币约等于0.175美元。

Panda brand radios sell for over $50 in Hong Kong and are still in short supply.

For middle-class families, it takes a month's salary to buy one.

"Look, I got some good stuff from New York. It's much cheaper than buying it in Sha Tau Kok, Hong Kong." The first mate invited Section Chief Zhang, who was using the alias Chen Ruhai, to have some beer in his room.

Sha Tau Kok is a village in the northern New Territories and is one of the important locations for the smuggling of daily necessities and small electronic products.

The first mate greatly admired Section Chief Zhang, not only because of his efficiency, but also because of his demeanor.

In this era, on the grounds of Hong Kong, you rarely see Chinese people with this fearless spirit, capable of engaging in equal dialogue with foreigners.

Previously, their company was Shun Cheong Shipping under the Xu family, and then they worked at Hong Kong Shipping. They once saw foreigners from Jardine Matheson trying to take over their ship.

Among the sailors, only Section Chief Zhang stood up and stopped the other sailors; most of the others just watched from the sidelines.

Although the ship was later lost, they returned to work at Shunchang Shipping, which made the chief mate think more highly of Section Chief Zhang, believing that the other was no ordinary person.

Section Chief Zhang recognized it at a glance. It had been featured in Hong Kong newspapers many times. At that time, Hong Kong newspapers were roughly divided into three camps, one of which was touting it as a technological breakthrough in China.

They boasted that China had produced world-class technological products in just over ten years since its founding, an achievement that China had never had before.

On the other two sides, English newspapers were skeptical, believing that the technology was likely imported and that China's claim of independent research and development was an exaggeration.

The last party asserted that the technology was imported by China at a high price, saying that they wanted this kind of vanity project over food.

In order to win, the island is in talks with Japan, hoping to bring in a semiconductor radio production line from Sony.

They even came up with a name: Golden Dragon, which they would launch in the Hong Kong market to compete with Panda.

The name "Golden Dragon" sounds cooler than "Panda," and we can sell it openly and legitimately, while you can only rely on private channels, giving us a natural price advantage.

In short, the newspapers were buzzing about the Panda brand radio, and it was hard for Section Chief Zhang not to know: "Panda brand, I saw in the newspapers that they all say it's a good product."

Despite the noise, no one denied that the Panda brand radio was a good product.

The first mate nodded and said, "It's a pity that the only drawback is that it's a medium wave radio, not a short wave radio. It's not suitable for long-distance listening at sea. We can only enjoy it slowly when we get back to Hong Kong and home."

Section Chief Zhang nodded: "I heard this thing is extremely expensive."

He had gotten used to life outside, and his connection with China was limited to thin threads and news reports about China.

In addition to relaying messages, Section Chief Zhang was also responsible for collecting overseas academic journals and finding ways to bring them back to Hong Kong. He felt a deep sense of pride and honor. He was proud because of China's scientific and technological progress, and honored because he had also contributed to China's scientific and technological progress.

For this sea voyage, which often took a month and a half to reach Hong Kong, the radio was an important tool for entertainment. It would travel from New York across the Atlantic to Malta and Gibraltar for resupply, then through the Suez Canal to Colombo in the Indian Ocean for further resupply, then through Singapore before finally arriving in Hong Kong.

Especially for Section Chief Zhang, he didn't participate in the card games on the ship. Apart from work, he mostly listened to the radio, partly to listen to the news and partly to learn English.

"Yes, I wonder when China will be able to launch a shortwave radio," the first mate added.

Large merchant ships are equipped with radio equipment to receive stronger signals, but medium-wave radio signals are poor at sea and are not very suitable.

However, the first mate still turned on Panda TV and tuned to China's international channel, where he heard Peking Opera music with a slight hissing sound.

Section Chief Zhang's thoughts drifted to his distant hometown.

"Yes, I believe that China's Panda Radio will launch more models." Section Chief Zhang's tone was very confident.

His suitcase was filled with academic materials, which the captain, who was working with him, had hidden in a secret place, waiting to be taken back to Hong Kong and then transported from the New Territories of Hong Kong to the mainland.

That's right. The main crew member on this ship who worked with him was a captain who had retired from the Eastern Shipping Company due to old age and was rehired by the Xu family.

Oriental Shipping also has another name in Hong Kong shipping history: Huo's Shipping.

It takes at least two months for a magazine to go from publication to reaching Chinese scientists after several transfers.

"This shows that our work is very effective. In the past, we transported medicines, daily necessities and industrial products to China, while China could only export handicrafts such as food and textiles."

For the first time now, China is able to export competitive industrial products.

This indicates that China's development has entered a virtuous cycle.

Whenever it came to the transportation of academic journals, Mr. Huo would personally oversee the process.

There are many points suitable for transportation from Hong Kong to the mainland.

Whether it's a cargo hub like Sai Wan Pier or Victoria Harbour, or a less regulated pier like Tuen Mun or Lau Fau Shan in the New Territories, Fok's shipping ships can successfully reach the other side.

With the cooperation of John George Thurnup, the academic journals shipped from New York to Hong Kong saw a significant improvement in quality, timeliness, and practicality.

After the journal was transported to the southwestern inland region, Chinese scientists were able to verify their ideas once again through the journal.

"Professor Xie, here, take a look at this article."

"Area 51 of China," Huang Kun said hurriedly, handing the slightly damp academic journal to Xie Xide.

It was February 1963, and Huang Kun handed Xie Xide a copy of the December 1st issue of Applied Physics Letters from the previous year.

(A paper titled "Coherent (Visible) Light Emission from Ga(As1-xPx) Junctions" published in Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 1, No. 5, December 1, 1962)

“Professor Xie, look, you guessed right, the lights on the Raspberry Pi are diodes!” Huang Kun continued.

Indeed, this academic journal, which traveled across the ocean, contains the first formal academic record of LED lights.

In October 1962, Hinker completed his experiment with visible light LEDs at General Electric. He then submitted his findings to an academic journal.

His research findings were published in Applied Physics Letters, a paper that details the red LEDs made using gallium arsenide phosphide and their light-emitting principles.

The office fell silent. About half an hour later, Xie Xide looked up at Huang Kun and said, "Professor Huang, yes, it should be a diode."

This paper mentions that coherent light emission in the visible light range can be observed in gallium arsenide phosphide pn junctions.

He successfully generated coherent visible light emission by applying a forward bias voltage to the Ga(As1-xPx) pn junction.

Xie Xide's tone was tinged with excitement, because the paper not only mentioned this phenomenon, but also detailed the operation.

"Specifically, they adjusted the proportion of phosphorus in the material to shift the wavelength of the emitted light from the infrared region to the visible light region, which is mainly the red spectrum in their paper."

The authors of this paper believe that this tuning capability is a unique advantage of Ga(As1-xPx) as an alloy material because it allows the bandgap to be controlled by changing the composition, thereby changing the wavelength of the emitted light.

Therefore, the red and green light we observe on the Raspberry Pi's light-emitting device should be the effect of shifting the wavelength of the emitted light into the green and red light.

From the very first day they saw the Raspberry Pi, Chinese scientists have been tirelessly researching it. The Panda brand transistor radio was just a minor product.

It has had an impact on the outside world, but that is not their goal.

Chinese scientists want to achieve far more than this.

What's the point of products that exist outside of China? Wouldn't products unique to China be more profitable?
Although China at that time did not emphasize commerce and did not know how to operate commercially to maximize profits, they were still very clear about the most basic concept of monopoly.

The benefits of Panda brand radios are already evident; electronic products can be exchanged for far more goods than agricultural products and textiles were exported in the past.

While replicating the Raspberry Pi is undoubtedly their most important task, producing economically valuable industrial products along the way is also an important part of their work.

No one would refuse such an achievement.

The most obvious difference is the unusual nature of the light-emitting device.

Because the most common type of light bulb nowadays is the incandescent bulb, especially in China.

The light-emitting device emits monochromatic light when powered on, and does not release significant heat, which is quite different from the heat radiation of an incandescent lamp.

Whether it's Huang Kun, Xie Xide, or other scientists in the semiconductor group, it's easy to connect this to electroluminescence, which is a known phenomenon.

However, the idea that the light-emitting device uses semiconductor materials to emit light was previously just a guess.

They dared not disassemble the light-emitting device separately for crystal structure analysis and elemental identification.

This paper, which traveled across the ocean, undoubtedly provided a conclusion to their speculations.

After listening, Huang Kun added: "That's right. In addition, the paper mentions that the evidence for this coherent light emission includes the narrow spectral linewidth and sudden increase in intensity of the light, which should indicate the existence of some kind of threshold effect."

These are all typical characteristics of laser operations.

Their experiment was conducted under low-temperature conditions, while the Raspberry Pi light-emitting device emits light under normal conditions.

I suspect that America's replication process was limited by certain technical constraints, preventing them from performing continuous laser operations at room temperature.

As if remembering something, Huang Kun quickly said, "Wait a minute, I'll call Wu Xijiu over. He told me last month that a type of infrared correlation light is also achieved through a pure gallium arsenide pn junction."

"Wait a moment, I'll go get Xi Jiu."

About fifteen minutes later, the core members of the Huaguo Semiconductor Group gathered in the office, including Wu Xijiu, Wang Shouwu, and others.

After Huang Kun finished introducing the academic paper on semiconductor luminescence that he had just obtained, Wu Xijiu raised his hand and said:
“That’s right. Last month I saw an article in America’s Physical Review Letters called ‘Coherent light emission from gallium arsenide junctions’.”

The paper Wu Xijiu mentioned was titled "Coherent Light Emission from GaAs Junctions" and was published in Physical Review Letters on November 1, 1962.

Wu Xijiu then said:

"They mainly stimulated coherent infrared light emission by applying a forward bias current to the pn junction of gallium arsenide. Since the wavelength of infrared light is beyond the range of human vision, I only mentioned it to Professor Huang. I didn't associate it with the light-emitting device of the Raspberry Pi."

They confirmed the existence of coherent light primarily by observing the significant narrowing of the emitted light's spectral linewidth and the emission of light exhibiting a certain directionality.

Furthermore, they clearly observed the existence of a threshold effect; when the injected current exceeded a certain critical value, the light emission intensity increased significantly.

After listening, Huang Kun summarized: "Xi Jiu, find the paper you read and study the two papers together as one."

Shouwu, you'll be responsible for replicating the experiment. You have a maximum of three days to complete the replication.

America's progress around light-emitting diodes is very rapid.

In just one month, infrared coherent light emission was observed from pure gallium arsenide pn junctions, extending into the visible light range.

We need to speed things up too.

After Huang Kun finished speaking, Wu Xijiu added: "But compared to the red LED mentioned in this paper, the Raspberry Pi's light-emitting device can also emit green light."

Could it have used other compounds?
Since the light-emitting device on the Raspberry Pi is only serving as an indicator light, I think we should submit a report to Dean Qian to see if we can remove the light-emitting device from the Raspberry Pi for further analysis.

After listening, Huang Kun shook his head: "It's just our guess that it functions as an indicator light. In reality, nobody knows what it actually does."

Let's submit a report first.

For China, any new discovery related to Raspberry Pi must be reported.

No matter how busy the officials and scientists in charge of this matter are, they will make time to review their reports as soon as possible.

That evening, in a secluded meeting room, the two officials in charge of administration and science discussed the matter.

"Old Qian, you guessed right, this Raspberry Pi probably came from General Electric."

The report submitted by Huang Kun and his team required that every detail be clearly stated.

This includes what a diode is, what it does, its connection to the Raspberry Pi, and the background of the authors who published the paper.

Among them, Xinke, who came from General Electric, immediately caught their attention.

Information from China is not closed off; it has never been closed off.

In this era of traditional media, China has many ways to obtain the latest news from around the world.

Lin Ran's relationship with General Electric, Morgan, and Rockefeller is frequently reported in major newspapers and media outlets.

Especially in America's conspiracy-themed newspapers, Lin Ran was portrayed as a spy planted in Washington by Rockefeller and Morgan to achieve their ulterior motives.

"Similar to our previous speculation, America's side likely received more than one Raspberry Pi."

They need a large enough quantity of raspberry pie for White Horse to have a chance of getting them, so that they won't be discovered once they're given to us.

For a long time, the Chinese side was worried about Lin Ran, fearing that America's side would discover that Lin Ran had sent a Raspberry Pi back to China.

This concern has intensified, especially in the last six months.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, China was also active, shooting down a U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft.

After obtaining the U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, and comparing it with the blueprints in the Raspberry Pi, it became clear that Lin Ran had not lied; the Raspberry Pi did indeed contain the U-2 blueprints.

China has begun replicating the U-2.

The reconnaissance aircraft, internally named the Dawn series, is being replicated by Factory 132, the predecessor of Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group.

A steady stream of drawings, parameters, and models were transported from Panzhihua to Chengdu.

Factory 132 began undertaking the task of copying the Soviet MiG-17II prototype in 1962, and at this time, another task was added: copying the U-2.

The MiG-17II is the future J-5, while the U-2's reverse engineering was internally named Shuguang-1.
The Chinese side is very worried about how much effort Lin Ran put into obtaining this information.

The more effort you put in, the higher the risks you expose yourself to—this is an age-old truth.

Only when the December American newspapers they obtained showed Kennedy on the front page and Lin Ran on the second page to celebrate the successful completion of NASA's Venus flyby mission did the concerns of the Chinese side ease slightly.

Lin Ran's value is too high.

They were afraid he would be exposed.

"That's right, America most likely disassembled the Raspberry Pi."

That's why their technological progress in semiconductors has been so rapid. "Dean Qian has even started to strategize for himself."

(End of this chapter)