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This press release is copyright Nature. VOL.441 NO.7091 DATED 18 MAY 2006
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[1] Optoelectronics: A short story of LEDs (pp 325-328; N&V)
Increasing the data storage density of optical memory devices such as compact disks means making the data spots smaller. This in turn means that the light beams used to read out the data have to have ever-shorter wavelengths. In Nature this week, Yoshitaka Taniyasu and colleagues report a light-emitting diode (LED) with the shortest wavelength of any such device to date, which emits deep into the ultraviolet part of the spectrum.
The research could lead not only to ultraviolet LEDs but to short-wavelength lasers. And these could find applications not just in optical data storage but also in biomedicine and water purification, where for example ultraviolet light is used to burn up hazardous organic matter.
The key to the new LEDs is a material called aluminium nitride (AlN). Although this substance is well known, it has not previously been used in light-emitting devices. To enable that, the researchers had to make two types of semiconducting forms of AlN: one in which electrical current is carried by mobile electrons (called n-type), and one where the carriers are positively charged holes (p-type). This was done by doping the material with atoms of either silicon or magnesium. When these films of n-type and p-type AlN are combined in a sandwich structure, the electrons and holes combine, releasing a photon (light particle) of short-wavelength ultraviolet light.
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