Three Japanese-born researchers have won the Nobel Prize for Physics for inventing a new light source which led to the creation of the LED lamp.

The trio are Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura, a researcher who is currently based in the United States.

In awarding the men the prize, the Nobel jury said their "inventions were revolutionary".

"Incandescent light bulbs lit the 20th century; the 21st century will be lit by LED lamps," the jury said.

The three researchers produced bright blue light beams from semi-conductors in the early 1990s, triggering a fundamental transformation of lighting technology, the jury said.

Red and green diodes had been around for a long time, but without blue light, white lamps could not be created.

Devising the blue LED was a challenge that endured for three decades.

"They succeeded where everyone else had failed," the jury said.

"With the advent of LED lamps we now have more long-lasting and more efficient alternatives to older light sources."

LED lamps emit a bright white light, are long-lasting and use far less energy compared with the incandescent light bulb pioneered by Thomas Edison in the 19th century.

Frances Saunders, president of Britain's Institute of Physics, said the shift offered the potential for huge energy savings.

"With 20 per cent of the world's electricity used for lighting, it's been calculated that optimal use of LED lighting could reduce this to 4 per cent," she said.

"Akasaki, Amano and Nakamura's research has made this possible and this prize recognises this contribution."

Because they have very low electricity needs, LED lights can be connected to cheap, local solar power - a benefit for more than 1.5 billion people around the world who lack access to the electricity grid.

The winners will share the prize sum of 8 million Swedish kronor ($US1.1 million).

Last year the award went to Peter Higgs of Britain and Francois Englert of Belgium for the discovery of the God particle, the sub-atomic Higgs boson which gives mass to other elementary particles.

In line with tradition, the laureates will receive their prize at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel's death in 1896.

Reuters/AFP