Abstract of the Disclosure

A multilayer, light emitting, semiconductor device comprises a stack of at least four relatively thin, rectancular layers of semiconductor material. The layers are alternately of P type and N type conductivity, each of the layers forming a PN junction with an adjacent layer. The stack comprises a resonant cavity including two opposite light-reflecting ends that are perpendicular to the PN junctions. When a current of at least a threshold value is sent through the stack, an inverted population of charge carriers takes place adjacent each forward-biased PN junction, and stimulated emission of light is produced thereat. The layers of the stack are thin enough to be transparent and thus permit optical coupling between the light produced at adjacent forward-biased PN junctions, whereby the emitted light beam from the device comprises the synchronized combined emission from all of the layers of inverted population.

• a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of a novel, multilayer, light-emitting, semiconductor device connected in a schematic circuit.

 Citations [54]:
  
3,431,513  03/1969  Nanaichi