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Basically, LEDs are just tiny light bulbs that fit easily into an electrical circuit.

But unlike ordinary


incandescent bulbs, they don't have a filament that will burn out, and they don't get especially hot. They
are illuminated solely by the movement of electrons in a semiconductor material,

A diode is the simplest sort of semiconductor device. A semiconductor with extra electrons is called N-
type material, since it has extra negatively charged particles. In N-type material, free electrons move
from a negatively charged area to a positively charged area.

A semiconductor with extra holes is called P-type material, since it effectively has extra positively
charged particles. Electrons can jump from hole to hole, moving from a negatively charged area to a
positively charged area. As a result, the holes themselves appear to move from a positively charged area
to a negatively charged area.

A diode consists of a section of N-type material bonded to a section of P-type material, with electrodes
on each end. This arrangement conducts electricity in only one direction. The interaction between
electrons and holes in this setup has an interesting side effect -- it generates light!

free electrons moving across a diode can fall into empty holes from the P-type layer. This involves a drop
from the conduction band to a lower orbital, so the electrons release energy in the form of photons. A
greater energy drop releases a higher-energy photon, which is characterized by a higher frequency.

This happens in any diode, but you can only see the photons when the diode is composed of certain
material. The atoms in a standard silicon diode, for example, are arranged in such a way that the
electron drops a relatively short distance. As a result, the photon's frequency is so low that it is invisible
to the human eye -- it is in the infrared portion of the light spectrum.

Visible light-emitting diodes (VLEDs), such as the ones that light up numbers in a digital clock, are made
of materials characterized by a wider gap between the conduction band and the lower orbitals. The size
of the gap determines the frequency of the photon -- in other words, it determines the color of the light.

They're inefficient, wasting lots of energy as heat, and have shorter lifespans than fluorescent lamps.
Recently, compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs have become popular alternatives to incandescent bulbs
thanks to lower power consumption. Where incandescent lights last an average of around 1,000 hours,
CFLs can last 8,000 hours. Unfortunately, CFLs contain toxic mercury that makes them potentially
hazardous and a pain to dispose of.

LEDs offer the advantages of CFLs -- lower power consumption and longer lifetimes -- without the
downside of toxic mercury.

LED bulbs present a high up-front cost compared to other bulbs. In addition to the high cost barrier,
LEDs are vulnerable to high temperatures.

When an electron gains energy through absorption of a photon, it moves to a higher excited state.
When an electron jumps from an energy level, to a lower energy level, it loses energy and emits a
photon that has energy equal to the difference between the two levels. When an electron makes a
spontaneous transition from a higher to a lower energy state, normally at room temperature, very few
electrons are in the higher excited states, so very few atoms emit electrons.

The laser working principle is based on the concept of population inversion and stimulated emission. As I
said before, normally very few atoms have electrons in the excited state. Population inversion is all
about inverting the population of electrons in ground states, so that maximum electron have atoms in
the excited state. This is achieved by bombardment of photons on the atoms, so that many electrons
absorb energy and rise to higher excited states. It is known as pumping.

Stimulated emission, unlike spontaneous emission is biasing the probability of electron transition to
lower states, causing emission of photons. It is achieved by bombarding of atoms with photons, which
have exactly the same energy, as difference between the transition energy levels. To get a
monochromatic and coherent light output from a bunch of atoms, many electrons need to be in a
specific excited state at the same time and they must make the transition to a lower state, in unison!
The light output is monochromatic or single wavelength, as all the atoms emit photons of same energy
and it's coherent as the photon emissions occur in unison!

Now that I have given you some idea about the laser working principles, let us have a look at the
working of laser. A laser consists of a 'Gain Medium', placed in a resonant cavity, with facility for
pumping the gain medium. The gain medium also known as 'lasing medium' is a bunch of atoms,
molecules or a mixture of atoms selected according to the wavelength of laser light that is needed. The
gain medium is selected after studying spectroscopic emission properties of various atoms. A resonant
cavity is an enclosure with reflecting mirror on one side and semi reflecting mirror on the other side. The
gain medium is first pumped, that is the atoms are excited by bombardment of photons. These atoms
have electrons in excited states which emit photons. These photons keep bouncing around in the gain
medium, as they are reflected due to the mirrors. This causes stimulated emission, which increases the
number of excited electrons. When these electrons get de-excited, they release photons of the same
energy and wavelength. This creates a concentrated, monochromatic output of photons, which escapes
out of the semi-silvered mirror, giving a laser output! This light beam can be concentrated by the usage
of lenses, giving it directionality, which is a feature of laser light.

According to the lasing medium, the wavelength of laser output changes. There are many types of
lasers, differentiated by the gain medium used. To fully understand how lasers work in detail, one must
understand some concepts of quantum mechanics and a lot of electronics.

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