Luminous efficacy is a measure of how well a light source produces visible light.

It is the ratio
of luminous flux to power. Depending on context, the power can be either the radiant flux of the source's
output, or it can be the total electric power consumed by the source. [1][2][3] Which sense of the term is
intended must usually be inferred from the context, and is sometimes unclear. The former sense is
sometimes called luminous efficacy of radiation, and the latterluminous efficacy of a source.
The luminous efficacy of a source is a measure of the efficiency with which the source provides visible
light from electricity. The luminous efficacy of radiation describes how well a given quantity of
electromagnetic radiation from a source produces visible light: the ratio of luminous flux to radiant
flux. Not all wavelengths of light are equally visible, or equally effective at stimulating human vision, due to
the spectral sensitivity of the human eye; radiation in the infraredand ultraviolet parts of the spectrum is
useless for illumination. The overall luminous efficacy of a source is the product of how well it converts
energy to electromagnetic radiation, and how well the emitted radiation is detected by the human eye.

Colors and materials

Conventional LEDs are made from a variety of inorganic semiconductor materials, the following table
shows the available colors with wavelength range, voltage drop and material:

Color

Wavelength [nm
]

Voltage [V]

Semiconductor material

> 760

V < 1.9

Gallium arsenide (GaAs)

Aluminium gallium arsenide (AlGaAs)

Red

610 < < 760

1.63 < V <

2.03

Aluminium gallium arsenide (AlGaAs)

Gallium arsenide phosphide (GaAsP)
Aluminium gallium indium phosphide (AlGaInP)
Gallium(III) phosphide (GaP)

Orange

590 < < 610

2.03 < V <

2.10

Gallium arsenide phosphide (GaAsP)

Aluminium gallium indium phosphide (AlGaInP)
Gallium(III) phosphide (GaP)

Infrared

570 < < 590

2.10 < V <

2.18

Gallium arsenide phosphide (GaAsP)

Aluminium gallium indium phosphide (AlGaInP)
Gallium(III) phosphide (GaP)

500 < < 570

1.9[47] < V <

4.0

Indium gallium nitride (InGaN) / Gallium(III) nitride (GaN)

Gallium(III) phosphide (GaP)
Aluminium gallium indium phosphide (AlGaInP)
Aluminium gallium phosphide (AlGaP)

Blue

450 < < 500

Zinc selenide (ZnSe)

Indium gallium nitride (InGaN)
2.48 < V < 3.7
Silicon carbide (SiC) as substrate
Silicon (Si) as substrate (under development)

Violet

400 < < 450

2.76 < V < 4.0 Indium gallium nitride (InGaN)

Purple

multiple types

Dual blue/red LEDs,

2.48 < V < 3.7 blue with red phosphor,
or white with purple plastic

Yellow

Green

Ultraviole
< 400
t

3.1 < V < 4.4

Diamond (235 nm)[48]

Boron nitride (215 nm)[49][50]
Aluminium nitride (AlN) (210 nm)[51]
Aluminium gallium nitride (AlGaN)
Aluminium gallium indium nitride (AlGaInN) (down to
210 nm)[52]

White

V = 3.5

Blue/UV diode with yellow phosphor

Broad spectrum

Ultraviolet and blue LEDs

Blue LEDs.

Blue LEDs are based on the wide band gap semiconductors GaN (gallium nitride) and InGaN (indium
gallium nitride). They can be added to existing red and green LEDs to produce the impression of white
light, though white LEDs today rarely use this principle.
The first blue LEDs were made in 1971 by Jacques Pankove (inventor of the gallium nitride LED) at RCA
Laboratories. These devices had too little light output to be of much practical use. In August 1989, Cree
Inc. introduced the first commercially available blue LED. In the late 1980s, key breakthroughs in
GaN epitaxial growth and p-type doping ushered in the modern era of GaN-based optoelectronic devices.
Building upon this foundation, in 1993 high brightness blue LEDs were demonstrated.
By the late 1990s, blue LEDs had become widely available. They have an active region consisting of one
or more InGaN quantum wells sandwiched between thicker layers of GaN, called cladding layers. By
varying the relative InN-GaN fraction in the InGaN quantum wells, the light emission can be varied from
violet to amber. AlGaNaluminium gallium nitride of varying AlN fraction can be used to manufacture the
cladding and quantum well layers for ultraviolet LEDs, but these devices have not yet reached the level of
efficiency and technological maturity of the InGaN-GaN blue/green devices. If the active quantum well
layers are GaN, instead of alloyed InGaN or AlGaN, the device will emit near-ultraviolet light with

wavelengths around 350370 nm. Green LEDs manufactured from the InGaN-GaN system are far more
efficient and brighter than green LEDs produced with non-nitride material systems.
With nitrides containing aluminium, most often AlGaN and AlGaInN, even shorter wavelengths are
achievable. Ultraviolet LEDs in a range of wavelengths are becoming available on the market. Near-UV
emitters at wavelengths around 375395 nm are already cheap and often encountered, for example,
as black light lamp replacements for inspection of anti-counterfeiting UV watermarks in some documents
and paper currencies. Shorter wavelength diodes, while substantially more expensive, are commercially
available for wavelengths down to 247 nm. As the photosensitivity of microorganisms approximately
matches the absorption spectrum of DNA, with a peak at about 260 nm, UV LED emitting at 250270 nm
are to be expected in prospective disinfection and sterilization devices. Recent research has shown that
commercially available UVA LEDs (365 nm) are already effective disinfection and sterilization devices. [58]
Deep-UV wavelengths were obtained in laboratories using aluminium nitride (210 nm), boron
nitride (215 nm) and diamond (235 nm).

White light
There are two primary ways of producing high intensity white-light using LEDs. One is to use individual
LEDs that emit three primary colorsred, green, and blueand then mix all the colors to form white light.
The other is to use a phosphor material to convert monochromatic light from a blue or UV LED to broadspectrum white light, much in the same way a fluorescent light bulb works.
Due to metamerism, it is possible to have quite different spectra that appear white.