Patent ID: 8362679

Claim:
A light emitting device comprising: a first body of an indirect bandgap material; a first junction region in the first body formed between a first region of the body of a first doping kind and a second region of the body of a second doping kind; a second junction region in the first body formed between the second region of the body and a third region of the first body of the first doping kind; the first and second junction regions being spaced from one another by not further than a minority carrier diffusion length; a terminal arrangement connected to the first, second and third regions of the first body for, in use, reverse biasing the first junction region into avalanche or field emission mode and for forward biasing the second junction region to inject carriers into the first junction region; and a second body of an isolation material immediately adjacent at least part of each of at least two of a top wall, a bottom wall and sidewalls of the third region of the first body, thereby to reduce parasitic injection from the first body.