The "blue laser" is and exciting new device used in physics. The potential is now being recognised for its development into a commercial lighting system using about a tenth of the power and with a thousand times the operating lifetime of a comparable conventional system. This comprehensive work introduces the subject at a level suitable for graduate students. It covers the basics physics of light emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes (LDs) based on gallium nitride and related nitride semiconductors, and gives an outline of their structural, transport and optical properties, and the relevant device physics. It begins with the fundamentals, and covers both theory and experiment, as well as an examination of actual and potential device applications. Shuji Nakamura and Nichia Chemicals Industries made the initial breakthroughs in the field, and these have revealed that LEDs and LDs are a sophisticated physical phenomenon and a commercial reality.

Shuji Nakamura's development of a blue semiconductor laser on the basis of GaN opens the way for a host of new applications of semiconductor lasers. The wavelengths can be tuned by controlling the composition. For the first time it is possible to produce lasers with various wavelengths, ranging from red through yellow and green to blue, in one substrate material. This fact, together with their high efficiency, makes GaN-based lasers very useful for a wide spectrum of applications. The second edition of this basic book on GaN-based devices has been updated and significantly extended. It includes a survey of worldwide research on GaN, as well as Nakamura's latest important developments. The reader finds a careful introduction to the physics and properties of GaN. The main part of the book deals with the production and characteristics of GaN LDs and LEDs. To complete the spectrum of applications, GaN power devices are also described.