New design methods can make LED light act more like lasers

In a paper published in Nature Photonics, UCSB electrical and computer engineering professor Jonathan Schuller and collaborators describe a new approach, which could allow a wide variety of LED devices—from virtual reality headsets to automotive lighting—to become more sophisticated and sleeker at the same time. The researcers showed a new kind of photonic architecture that not only allows you to extract more photons, but also to direct them where you want.