IIT-Madras researchers design white light emitters for LED applications

What is the News?

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras have successfully developed a white light emitter for use in LEDs.

What is LED (Light-Emitting Diodes)?

A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when an electric current is passed through it. 

How do LEDs emit white light?

Conventional LED materials cannot emit white light and specialised techniques, such as coating blue LED with yellow phosphor and combining blue, green and red LEDs, have been used to produce white light.

Hence, there has been a worldwide search for materials that can directly emit white light rather than through these indirect techniques that can cause loss of efficiency.

What have the researchers at IIT Madras developed?

Researchers at the IIT Madras have successfully developed a white light emitter for use in LEDs. 

They have developed this by exploring crystalline materials called ‘Halide-Perovskites’. These materials have extraordinary optoelectronic properties and excellent light-to-current conversion efficiencies. 

What is the significance of this development?

These indigenously-developed bright white light emitters can potentially replace the conventional high-cost materials and phenomenally save the energy cost per lumens.

Source: This post is based on the article “IIT-Madras researchers design white light emitters for LED applications” published in Down To Earth on 18th October 2021.