High-efficiency silicon light emitting diodes

Silicon has been regarded as a notoriously poor emitter of light fundamentally due to its indirect bandgap. However, as an elemental rather than a compound semiconductor, it has the advantage of fewer background defects as well as well-developed approaches to interface passivation. By minimising parasitic optical absorption and non-radiative bulk and surface recombination, and by enhancing the effective optical photon generation volume, respectable silicon light emission efficiencies are demonstrated. These are within the range of direct gap III–V semiconductors and higher than any at low powered densities. Possible applications are also discussed.