Non‐polar‐oriented InGaN light‐emitting diodes for liquid‐crystal‐display backlighting

— This article addresses spontaneously polarized light emission from GaN‐based light‐emitting diodes (LEDs) fabricated on electrically non‐polar crystallographic orientations and application of spontaneously polarized emission for backlighting of liquid‐crystal displays (LCDs). The first half of the article describes polarized light emission from GaN‐based LEDs and its role in solid‐state lighting technology. The second half reports on our experimental work to explore the potential of non‐polar LEDs for LCD backlighting applications. Optical transmission of non‐polar LED emission was characterized through a liquid‐crystal layer. Extinction ratios of 0.21 were measured between zero and an applied bias voltage to the liquid‐crystal cells. These extinction ratios are not particularly high yet; nevertheless, the experiment has demonstrated the potential of such non‐polar LEDs for LCD backlighting.