Cree Lighting Co. of Goleta, Calif., announced that it has boosted the performance of a 390-nm LED by 20 percent. In recent tests, the InGaN device displayed a quantum efficiency of 32 percent and an output of 21 mW at 20 mA. The research was partly funded by the US Department of Commerce under the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Advanced Technology Program.

Near-UV/violet LEDs might serve as the basis of commercial solid-state illumination by optically stimulating phosphors to produce white light. Higher quantum efficiencies could enable the energy-efficient solid-state devices to compete with less-expensive fluorescent and incandescent light sources.