eli5: if a wire burns in a normal bulb, what “burns” inside an LED (what makes the light)?
In: Physics
Its kind of a different mechanism: in an old light bulb, the wire heats up, and the heat causes it to create light through what we call “black body radiation”. It basically means the atoms of the wire jiggle very fast, and this motion creates the light we see.
For LEDs, light is created using a different mechanism: we use electricity to move electrons across a barrier, and once they are over, they return to their normal state, releasing light. Kind of like pushing a rock over a hill.
This is why it’s almost impossible to make wire bulbs with light that isn’t orange/yellow, since it requires insane temperatures that are unsafe for the materials or people around them. With LEDs, since you don’t need to heat up anything, you just need to find the right kind of material with the right “height” of the mountain such that the light is in the color you want.
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