ABSTRACT
The electroluminescence (EL) of inorganic materials is classified into the two groups: injection EL and high electric field EL. The high- field EL is further divided into two types: powder phosphor EL and thin-film EL. The term "injection EL" is used to explain the phenomenon of luminescence produced by the injection of minority carriers. Semiconductor lasers, first demonstrated in 1962 using GaAs diodes, operate by stimulating injection EL light in an appropriate optical cavity. The LEDs that became commercially available in the late 1960s were the green-emitting and the red-emitting diodes. The chapter focuses on the basic processes of the high-field EL, in particular on the excitation mechanisms in thin-film EL. It discusses the excitation mechanism which is similar to that of thin-film EL. The EL excitation mechanism is as follows: the luminescence centers are excited by the impact of the electron accelerated by the pulsed voltage and then ionized by the applied pulsed field.
