Patent ID: 8450127
Filing Date: 2013-05-28
Classification: H01L

Abstract:
1. A method of operating a light emitting diode, comprising: providing a semiconductor wafer with a surface layer that is sufficiently electrically insulating to allow quantum tunneling of charge carriers through the surface layer, the surface layer having a thickness of 3 nm or less, and having a conductive layer on the surface layer, the conductive layer being electrically conductive and at least sufficiently transparent to allow electromagnetic radiation to pass through the conductive layer, in which the Fermi levels of the semiconductor wafer and the conductive layer are selected so that pulsed electrical bias across the surface layer changes the operation of the light emitting diode from accumulation to depletion mode; and applying a pulsed bias through contacts on the semiconductor wafer and conductive layer across the surface layer to cause the operation of the light emitting diode to switch between operational modes including accumulation and depletion modes and cause the light emitting diode to emit different wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation.