The world demands ever-increasing performance from LEDs, and now a research team at Imperial College in London have embedded tailored meta-grids of nanoparticles into LEDs to enhance their light output and lifespan.
Their method was published in Light Science & Application. Dr. Debabrata Sikdar, Prof. Sir John B. Pendry, and Prof. Alexei Kornyshev reported increased transmission of the light generated inside the LED chip by reducing the Fresnel reflection loss at the chip/encapsulant interface within a fixed photon escape cone, with only minimal changes to the manufacturing process.
The analysis shows that transmission across a typical LED-chip/encapsulant interface at the peak emission wavelength can be boosted to 99%, versus 84% without the new technique. With further development the new method could provide improved transmission within the photon escape cone over an LED’s entire emission spectrum, not only boosting light output but saving energy and increasing the lifespan by reducing chip heating unwanted reflections within the chip.