Hui Cao, 486375 Andover Dr, Gurnee, IL 60031

5877509, Mar 2, 1999

Nov 14, 1997

8/970948

Stanley Pau - Stuttgart, DE
Hui Cao - Stanford CA
Yoshihisa Yamamoto - Stanford CA

Stanford University - Stanford CA
Japan Science and Technology Corporation - Saitama

H01L 2906

257 14

A light emitting device made of semiconducting materials. The device has an optical microcavity which supports a resonant mode of predetermined photon energy. Within the cavity is a quantum well of predetermined thickness and energy depth. The quantum well is designed such that it forms bound electron, exciton, lower polariton, and hole energy states of predetermined energy. The energy of an exciton state is set to equal the predetermined photon energy of the microcavity mode such that polariton states are created. A means is provided for resonantly tunneling electrons into a quantum well energy state. In a first embodiment, electrons resonantly tunnel into an electron energy state. In a second embodiment, electrons resonantly tunnel into an exciton energy state, during which tunneling the electrons simultaneously fuse with holes to form excitons. In the first embodiment, the electron state to lower polariton state transition energy is made equal to the energy of a longitudinal optical (LO) phonon of the quantum well material.