Happy Birthday LEDS
http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2012/10/oct-9-1962-the-first-visible-led-is-demonstrated/
http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2012/10/oct-9-1962-the-first-visible-led-is-demonstrated/
In the early 1960s, the only light emitted from LEDs was infrared. The race to produce a visible LED had GE researchers scrambling to be first.Holonyak suggested using a mixture of gallium arsenide and gallium phosphide (GaAs phosphide). His fellow scientists said the mixture would not work. In fact, they were pretty vocal in their disagreement with Holonyak's hypothesis.
"You so and so, if you would have been a chemist, you would have known that wouldn't work and all that," Holonyak told the producers of A Brilliant Idea: Nick Holonyak, Jr. and the LED, a video about his colleagues' lack of faith in his idea.
Undeterred, Holonyak forged head and created a GaAs phosphide crystal. Fifty years ago today, he presented the first visible LED to GE executives. His mixture created a red glow that's still seen today. But Holonyak believed that the dim glow of his invention was just the beginning.