Researchers have used the wonder material known as graphene to create the world’s smallest light bulb.

Graphene, which was discovered a little over a decade ago, is a layer of pure carbon just one atom thick. Stronger than steel, it is transparent, light and flexible and possesses uncommon electric and thermal properties. If graphene’s properties are properly harnessed, scientists say it could transform everything from TVs to smartphones and computers.

In the latest research, published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, scientists show that graphene can be manipulated to produce a bright light as well.

The scientists applied a 2-to-3-volt charge to a layer of graphene suspended between two electrodes. That caused the graphene to heat up. Because graphene has the unusual property of conducting heat much less effectively when it warms up, the introduced heat got confined—and concentrated—at a single spot.

The temperature of that spot rose to 2,500 degrees Celsius, which is half as hot as the surface of the sun. The graphene filament then emitted a bright light—one so intense it could be seen with the naked eye despite being on the scale of an atom.

“The intensity and stability of the light were similar to that of an incandescent bulb,” saidYoung Duck Kim, physicist at Columbia University and lead author of the study.

The study was done by a team of scientists from Columbia, Seoul National University and Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science.

How might graphene’s light-emitting property be used? It could be integrated as a light source into chips or thin, flexible and transparent displays. It could also be the basis of a switching mechanism in future computers, whereby light instead of electricity is used to relay information.

“We can turn the light in graphene on and off very fast—which means we can send information very fast,” said Dr. Kim.

There is historical precedent for using a carbon-based material as an everyday light source. In the early days of tinkering with the light bulb, Thomas Edison used filaments made from carbonized bamboo.

But graphene poses other challenges. The filaments in today’s incandescent light bulbs are often made from tungsten, a material that emits virtually all of its heat in the form of light. By comparison, graphene emits only about 2% of its heat in the form of light.

“We cannot change the material properties of graphene, but we need to find other ways to improve the efficiency of its light emission,” said Dr. Kim.

Others already see commercial potential. In March, Manchester University in the U.K.—where graphene was first isolated in 2004—said its scientists had developed a light bulb whose filament is coated in a thin layer of graphene. The dimmable LED light bulb is supposed to last longer and be more energy-efficient than conventional lights. It will be on British shelves “in a matter of months,” the university said.