Why did Nick Holonyak invent the LED?

Nick Holonyak Jr. was an American engineer and educator. He was best known for his 1962 invention of a light-emitting diode (LED) that emitted visible red light instead of infrared light while working at General Electric’s research laboratory in Syracuse, New York.

Prior to his invention, there was a lot of work being done to develop a visible laser.

In 1953, a maser, the microwave forefather of the laser, was invented. However, no one knew for sure whether visible light could be made into a coherent beam. And if it could be done would the human eye even be able to see it?

A scientist named Theodore Maiman answered that question in 1960 by demonstrating a ruby-based laser. Maiman had taken a powerful incandescent bulb and used it to excite the electrons in a ruby.

As the electrons dropped back to their normal state they released a pulse of coherent laser light.

However, Holonyak wanted to find a way to create a laser directly with a semiconductor instead of by producing light with an incandescent bulb and amplifying it.

Previously, a team at MIT had created a diode that emitted infrared light so he thought it might be possible.

In 1962, he succeeded in inventing a light-emitting diode (LED) that emitted visible red light instead of infrared light and correctly predicted that his LEDs would replace the incandescent light bulb of Thomas Edison in the February 1963 issue of Reader’s Digest.

As LEDs improve in quality and efficiency they are gradually replacing incandescents as the bulb of choice.

Holonyak died on Sept. 18 at age 93.