White Paper: Aluminum Nitride Deep-Ultraviolet Light-Emitting Diodes

By Yoshitaka Taniyasu, Makoto Kasu, and Toshiki Makimoto, NTT Science and Core Technology Laboratory Group

Researchers have successfully fabricated an aluminum nitride light-emitting diode (LED) and observed ultraviolet light with a wavelength of 210 nm. This is the shortest wavelength ever observed from any semiconductor. This LED represents a major step towards replacing large, toxic, and low-efficiency gas light sources with compact, harmless, and high-efficiency semiconductor light sources. The application fields of these LEDs include environmental protection, nanotechnology, and information technology.