LIGHT-EMITTING DIODES AND LASERS

Prof. Ashish Pandya

 Photonic devices

• Photonic devices are devices in which the basic

particle of light—the photon—plays a major role.
• We consider two groups of photonic devices:
1. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs)
2. Lasers (Light amplification by stimulated
emission of radiation)
which convert electrical energy to optical energy
Electromagnetic spectrum from the ultraviolet region to
the infrared region

The detectable range of light by the human eye extends only from 0.4 µm to 0.7 µm

The ultraviolet region includes wavelengths from 0.01 µm to 0.4 µm,

The infrared region extends from 0.7 µm to 1,000 µm
 RADIATIVE TRANSITIONS
Three processes for interaction between a photon and an electron in a solid: absorption,
spontaneous emission, and stimulated emission

Consider two energy levels E1 and E2 of an atom, where E1 corresponds to the ground
state and E2 corresponds to the excited state (Fig. 2).

Any transition between these states involves the emission or absorption of a photon
with frequency ν12 given by hν12 = E2 – E1.

At room temperature, most of the atoms in a solid are at the ground state.

This situation is disturbed when a photon of energy exactly equal to hν12 impinges on
the system. An atom in state E1 absorbs the photon and thereby goes to the excited
state E2.

The change in the energy state is the absorption process, shown in Fig. 2a. The
excited state of the atom is unstable.
 RADIATIVE TRANSITIONS

After a short time, without any external stimulus, it makes a transition to the
ground state, giving off a photon of energy hν12.

This process is called spontaneous emission (Fig. 2b).

When a photon of energy hν12 impinges on an atom while it is in the excited

state (Fig. 2c), the atom can be stimulated to make a transition to the
ground state and gives off a photon oI energy hν12, which is in phase with
the incident radiation.

This process is called stimulated emission.

The radiation from stimulated emission is monochromatic because each

photon has precisely an energy hν12 and is coherent because all photons
emitted are in phase.
 RADIATIVE TRANSITIONS

Fig. 2 The three basic transition processes between two energy levels.
Black dots indicate the state of the atom.
The initial state is at the left; the final state, after the transition, is at the right.
(a) Absorption. (b) Spontaneous emission. (c) Stimulated emission.
• The dominant operating process :

LEDs ----------Spontaneous emission

Laser diodes (LDs) -----------Stimulated emission
Photo-detectors and the solar cells ----------------Absorption
• In steady state
 Optical Absorption

The photon is a type of elementary particle that serves as the quantum of

the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light
and radio waves.

When a semiconductor is illuminated, photons are absorbed to create electron-hole

pairs (EHPs), as shown in Fig. 3a, if the photon energy is equal to the band gap
energy, that is, hν equals Eg.

If hν is greater than Eg, an electron-hole pair is generated and, in addition, the

excess energy (hν- Eg) is dissipated as heat, as shown in Fig. 3b.

Both processes (Figs. 3a and b) are called intrinsic transitions (or band-to-band
transitions).

On the other hand, for hν less than Eg, a photon will be absorbed only if there are
available energy states in the forbidden bandgap due to chemical impurities or
physical defects, as shown in Fig. 3c. That process is called extrinsic transition.

Figure 3
 LIGHT-EMITTING DIODES
• Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are p-n junctions that can emit
spontaneous radiation in ultraviolet, visible, or infrared
regions.

• The visible LED has a multitude of applications as an

information link between electronic instruments and their
users. The infrared LED is useful in opto-isolators and for
optical-fiber communication
Fig. 6 (a) Under forward bias of a p-n junction, electrons injected from n-side
recombine with holes injected from p-side.
(b) Recombination taking place in the vicinity of the junction.
(c) Higher carrier densities confined in a double heterojunction.
• A hetero-junction is an interface between two layers or regions of dissimilar
semiconductors. These semiconducting materials have unequal band gaps as
opposed to a homo junction.

• Fig. 6c

• Fig. 6c shows the central material, which is bound by layers with

a higher energy gap.
• Excess carriers of both types are injected and confined at the same space to
produce light.
• The number of excess carriers in the central region can be significantly increased.
The radiative recombination lifetime is shortened due to higher EHP
concentrations, and more efficient radiative recombination is obtained.
• This double heterojunction design yields a much higher efficiency and is the
preferred approach.
 Optical characteristics of the LED
• Band-to-band Recombination
The recombination of electron and hole produces a photon with energy hν
nearly equal to the band gap.
Because the largest electron concentration in the conduction band is at an
energy kT/2 above EC, similarly the most probable energy for a hole in the
valence band has an energy kT/2 below EV.
The photon energy is approximately
hν = Eg + kT . Eq.(11)
Spectral Width
The light spectrum of an LED shows a peak at the wavelength λm given by
Eq. (11).
A simple differentiation of Eq. (1) with respect to λ shows that there is a
spread of wavelengths Δλ associated with a spread of energy ΔE:
• The light is emitted in a range of wavelengths centered at the peak
wavelength. This range is called the Spectral Width.

• Frequency Response

• The electrical input signal is generally modulated at high frequencies. This

signal causes direct modulation of the injected current in an LED.
• Parasitic elements such as the depletion-layer capacitance and series
resistance can cause a delay of carrier injection into the junction and a
delay in the light output.
• The ultimate limit on how fast one can vary the light output depends on
the carrier lifetime, which is determined by various recombination
processes, such as the surface recombination discussed in Chapter 2.
• If the current is modulated at an angular frequency ω, the light output
P(ω) is given by
• where P(0) is the light output at ω = 0 and τ is the overall carrier lifetime.
• The modulation band-width f is defined as the frequency at which the
light output is reduced to 0.707 from that at ω = 0, that is,
9.2.3 Quantum Efficiency

Internal Quantum Efficiency

For a given input power, the radiative recombination processes are in competition
with the nonradiative ones.

The band-to-band transition and transitions via traps can be either radiative or
nonradiative.

Examples of nonradiative band-to-band recombination are those in indirect-

bandgap semiconductors.
External Quantum Efficiency

For LED applications, what matters is the light emitted external to the device.

The parameter to measure the efficiency of the light emitted externally is the
optical efficiency ηop, sometimes called the extraction efficiency.

The external quantum efficiency is defined as

Basically, there are several main loss mechanisms that reduce the optical efficiency. We focus on
the device optical paths and optical interfaces.

1. Absorption within the LED material:

The magnitude of the loss is related to the absorption coefficient for a given photon wavelength,
as discussed in Section 9.1. Absorption can be minimized by placing the junction closer to the
emitting surface.

2. Absorption in the substrate:

3. Fresnel reflection loss: For normal light incidence from semiconductor to air, the direction of
the optical path is not changed. But it suffers from the Fresnel loss with a reflection coefficient
associated with the different refractive indices shown as the optical path A in Fig. 7a:
where n 1 and n2 are the refractive indices of semiconductor and outside medium (usually
air n1 = 1). This optical loss can be minimized by an anti-reflection coating on the LED surface.

4. Total internal reflection loss: The incident light at an angle greater than the critical angle
θc defined by Snell’s law will be totally reflected back to the semiconductor shown as the optical
path B in Fig. 7a:
• At low forward voltages, the diode current is dominated by the nonradiative
recombination current due mainly to surface recombination near the perimeter of
LED chip.
• At higher forward voltages, the diode current is dominated by the radiative
diffusion current. At even higher voltages, the series resistance will limit the
diode current. The total diode current can be written as
 9.3 VARIOUS LIGHT-EMITTING DIODES

• Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are p-n junctions that can emit spontaneous radiation
in ultraviolet, visible, or infrared regions.
• The visible LED has a multitude of applications as an information link between
electronic instruments and their users.
• The white LED has become a key component in backlight source for the liquid
crystal flat-panel display and street lamps. It has a potential to replace the
conventional light sources for solid-state lighting applications when the costs of
blue, green and red LEDs, especially blue LEDs, become competitive.
• The infrared LED is useful in opto-isolators, optical-fiber communication and health
care applications.
 9.3.1 Visible LEDs
• Figure 8 shows the relative eye response as a function of wavelength (or
the corresponding photon energy).
• The maximum sensitivity of the eye is at 555 nm. The eye response falls to
nearly zero at the extremes of the visible spectrum at about 400 and 700
nm.
• Since the eye is sensitive only to light with a photon energy hν equal to or greater
than 1.8 eV (< 700 nm), semiconductors of interest must have an energy bandgap
larger than this limit.
• Table 1 lists the semiconductors used to produce light in the visible and infrared
parts of the spectrum. Among all the semiconductors shown, the most important
materials for visible LEDs are the alloy GaAs1-yPy and GaxIn1-xN III-V compound
systems.
 9.3.2 Organic LED

• In recent years, certain organic semiconductors have been studied for

electroluminescent applications.
• The organic light-emitting diode (OLED) is particularly useful for a
multicolor, large-area flat-panel display because of its attributes of low-
power consumption and excellent emissive quality with a wide viewing
angle.
• OLEDs are made from small molecules or polymers.
• Commonly, macro-molecules with a molecular weight greater than 10,000
atomic mass units (amu) are called polymers, whereas lighter molecules
are referred to small molecules.
• Usually, a polymer light-emitting diode is referred to as a PLED. A small
molecule light-emitting diode is referred to as an OLED because the first
high-efficiency OLED was made from small molecules.

• The structures of the OLED prepared by vacuum deposition techniques or

the PLED prepared by spin-coating, screen printing etc, are usually
amorphous with current preparation methods.
 9.3.3 White-Light LED

• There has been interest in the development of white LEDs for general illumination
because LEDs have much higher efficiency than incandescent lamps. In addition,
LEDs can last 10 times longer.

• White light can be produced by mixing two or three colors of an appropriate

intensity ratio.

• There are basically two approaches to achieving white light. The first is to combine
LEDs of different colors: red, green, and blue.

• This is not a popular approach since it is more costly and involves sophisticated
electro-optical design to control the blending of different colors.

• The second approach, most commonly used, is to have a single LED

covered with a color converter. A color converter is a material that absorbs the
original LED light and emits light of different frequency.

• The converter material can be phosphor, organic dye, or another semiconductor,

with phosphor the most common of the three.
• The light output from a phosphor generally has a much broader spectrum than the
LED light.

• The efficiencies of these color converters can be very high, near 100%.

• One popular version is to use a blue LED together with a yellow phosphor. In this
scheme, the LED light is partially absorbed by phosphor. The blue LED light is mixed
with yellow light produced by the phosphor to give white light. Another
version is to use a UV LED to stimulate red, green, and blue phosphors to give a
white light.
 9.3.4 Infrared LED
• Infrared LEDs include gallium arsenide LEDs, which emit light near 0.9 m, and many
III-V compounds, such as the quaternary GaxIn1-xAsyP1-y LEDs, which emit light from
1.1 to 1.6 m.
• An important application of infrared LEDs is in opto-isolators, where an input or
control signal is decoupled from the output.
• Figure 16 shows an opto-isolator having an infrared LED as the light source and a
photodiode as the detector.

• When an input signal is applied to the LED, light is generated and subsequently
detected by the photodiode. The light is then converted back to an electrical signal
as a current that flows through a load resistor. Opto-isolators transmit signals at
the speed of light and are electrically isolated because there is no electrical
feedback from the output to the input.
• Another important application of infrared LEDs is for transmission of an optical
signal through an optical fiber, as in a communication system .
• The fiber is usually drawn from a preform of glass to a diameter of about 100 m.
• It is flexible and can guide optical signals over distances of many kilometers to a
receiver, similarly to the way a coaxial cable transmits electrical signals.
 LASER
• Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
• Characteristics of Laser :
Laser light has four unique characteristics that differentiate it from
ordinary light.
• Coherence
• Directional
• Monochromatic
• High intensity
 Coherence

• In ordinary light sources (lamp, sodium lamp and torch light), the electron
transition occurs naturally. In other words, electron transition in ordinary
light sources is random in time. The photons emitted from ordinary light
sources have different energies, frequencies, wavelengths, or colors.
Hence, the light waves of ordinary light sources have many wavelengths.
Therefore, photons emitted by an ordinary light source are out of phase.
• In laser, the electron transition occurs artificially. In other words, in laser,
electron transition occurs in specific time. All the photons emitted in laser
have the same energy, frequency, or wavelength. Hence, the light waves
of laser light have single wavelength or color. Therefore, the wavelengths
of the laser light are in phase in space and time. In laser, a technique
called stimulated emission is used to produce light.
• Thus, light generated by laser is highly coherent. Because of this
coherence, a large amount of power can be concentrated in a narrow
space.
• Directional
• In conventional light sources (lamp, sodium lamp and torchlight), photons
will travel in random direction. Therefore, these light sources emit light in
all directions.
• On the other hand, in laser, all photons will travel in same direction.
Therefore, laser emits light only in one direction. This is called
directionality of laser light. The width of a laser beam is extremely
narrow. Hence, a laser beam can travel to long distances without
spreading.
• If an ordinary light travels a distance of 2 km, it spreads to about 2 km in
diameter. On the other hand, if a laser light travels a distance of 2 km, it
spreads to a diameter less than 2 cm.
Monochromatic
• Monochromatic light means a light containing a single color or wavelength. The
photons emitted from ordinary light sources have different energies, frequencies,
wavelengths, or colors. Hence, the light waves of ordinary light sources have many
wavelengths or colors. Therefore, ordinary light is a mixture of waves having
different frequencies or wavelengths.

• On the other hand, in laser, all the emitted photons have the same energy,
frequency, or wavelength. Hence, the light waves of laser have single wavelength
or color. Therefore, laser light covers a very narrow range of frequencies or
wavelengths.

High Intensity
• The intensity of a wave is the energy per unit time flowing through a unit normal
area. In an ordinary light source, the light spreads out uniformly in all directions.

• In laser, the light spreads in small region of space and in a small wavelength range.
Hence, laser light has greater intensity when compared to the ordinary light.  
 Laser Operation

 
The population inversion is required for laser operation. It is the process of achieving greater
population of higher energy state as compared to the lower energy state.

Population inversion technique is mainly used for light amplification.

Consider a group of electrons with two energy levels E 1 and E2. E1 is the lower energy state
and E2 is the higher energy state. N1 is the number of electrons in the energy state E1. N2 is
the number of electrons in the energy state E2.
The number of electrons per unit volume in an energy state is the population of that energy
state.
Population inversion cannot be achieved in a two energy level system.
Under normal conditions, the number of electrons (N 1 ) in the lower energy state (E1 ) is
always greater as compared to the number of electrons (N2 ) in the higher energy state (E2).
N1> N2
• There are certain substances in which the electrons once
excited; they remain in the higher energy level or excited state
for longer period. Such systems are called active systems or
active media which are generally mixture of different
elements. When such mixtures are formed, their electronic
energy levels are modified and some of them acquire special
properties. Such types of materials are used to form 3-level
laser or 4-level laser.
• To get laser emission or population inversion, the population at higher energy state (E 2 )
should be greater than the population at the lower energy state (E 1 ).

• Under certain conditions, the greater population of higher energy state (E 2) as compared to
the lower energy state (E1) is achieved. Such an arrangement is called population inversion.

• Let us assume that initially the majority of electrons will be in the lower energy state or
ground state (E1 ) and only a small number of electrons will be in excited states (E 2 and E3).

• When we supply light energy which is equal to the energy difference of E 3 and E1, the
electrons in the lower energy state (E1 ) gains sufficient energy and jumps into the higher
energy state (E3 ). This process of supplying energy is called pumping.

• The lifetime of electrons in the energy state E3 is very small as compared to the lifetime of
electrons in the energy state E2.

• Therefore, electrons in the energy level E 3 does not stay for long period. After a short period,
they quickly fall to the Meta stable state or energy state E 2 and releases radiation less
energy instead of photons.
 Laser Construction
A laser or laser system consists of three important components: a
pump source, laser medium and optical resonator.
• Pump Source
• The pump source or energy source is the part of a laser system that provides
energy to the laser medium. The source of energy supplies sufficient amount of
energy to the laser medium by which the electrons in the lower energy state are
excited to the higher energy state. As a result, we get population inversion in the
active medium or laser medium.

• Examples of energy sources include electric discharges, light from another laser,
chemical reactions, and flash lamps. The type of energy source used is mostly
depends on the
 
• Laser Medium
• The laser medium is a medium where spontaneous and stimulated emission of
radiation takes place.
• Optical Resonator
• The laser medium is surrounded by two parallel mirrors which provide
feedback of the light. These two mirrors are given optical coatings which
determine their reflective properties. One mirror is fully reflective (100 %
reflective) whereas another one is partially reflective (<100 % reflective).
These two mirrors as a whole is called optical resonator. Optical resonator
is also known as optical cavity or resonating cavity.
• One mirror will completely reflect the light whereas another one will
partially reflect the light. The completely reflective mirror is called high
reflector whereas the partially reflective mirror is called output coupler.
The output coupler will allows some of the light to leave the optical cavity
to produce the laser’s output beam. This amplified light escapes through
the partially reflecting mirror. The light in the laser medium is reflected
many hundreds of times between the mirrors before it escape through the
partially reflecting mirror. The light escaped from the partially reflecting
mirror is produced by the stimulated emission process. Hence, this light
will travel to large distances without spreading in the space.