Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Light-emitting diodes

Photonic crystal efficiency boost

Nature Photonics volume 3, pages 129–130 (2009)Cite this article

LEDs are receiving great interest as candidates for next-generation lighting because they promise to reduce energy consumption enormously. However, to be a feasible solution their quantum efficiency needs to improve. Now, it seems that the incorporation of photonic crystals may be an answer.

On page 163 of this issue, Wierer et al.2 successfully demonstrate a significant increase in light-extraction efficiency by introducing photonic crystals into a GaN-based LED, as shown in Fig. 1b. Photonic crystals, nanostructures for light with a periodic refractive index distribution, give control over the direction of light propagation (by multi-directional Bragg diffraction effect) and can even inhibit undesired light emission by the photonic bandgap effect3,4.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Cross-sectional schematic of LED structures.

References

  1. Narumawa, Y. et al. Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 46, L963–L965 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Wierer, J. J., David, A. & Megens, M. M. Nature Photon. 3, 163–169 (2009).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Yablonovitch, E. Phys. Rev. Lett. 58, 2059–2062 (1987).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Noda, S., Fujita, M. & Asano, T. Nature Photon. 1, 449–458 (2007).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Fujita, M., Takahashi, S., Tanaka, Y., Asano, T. & Noda, S. Science 308, 1296–1298 (2005).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Fujita, M., Tanaka, Y. & Noda, S. IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quant. Electron. 14, 1090–1097 (2008).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Fujita, M. et al. Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 44, 3669–3677 (2005).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Krames, M. R. et al. J. Display Tech. 3, 160–175 (2007).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Narumawa, Y. et al. Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 45, L1048–L1086 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Krames, M. R. et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 75, 2365–2367 (1999).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Susumu Noda and Masayuki Fujita are in the Department of Electronic Science and Engineering, Kyoto University, Katsura, Nishikyo-ku, Kyoto 615-8510, Japan. snoda@kuee.kyoto-u.ac.jp,

    Susumu Noda & Masayuki Fujita

Authors
  1. Susumu Noda
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Masayuki Fujita
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Noda, S., Fujita, M. Photonic crystal efficiency boost. Nature Photon 3, 129–130 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2009.15

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2009.15

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing