Light-emitting diode into a lower energy level and releases energy in the form of a photon. The wavelength of the light emitted, and thus its color, depends on the band gap energy of the materials forming the "p-n junction". In silicon or germanium diodes, the electrons and holes usually recombine by a "non-radiative transition", which produces no optical emission, because these are indirect band gap materials. The materials used for the LED have a direct band gap with energies corresponding to near-infrared, visible, or near-ultraviolet light. LED development began with infrared and red devices made with gallium arsenide. Advances in materials science
Light-emitting diode However, the appearance of objects illuminated by that light may vary as the spectrum varies; this is the issue of color rendition, quite separate from color temperature, where a really orange or cyan object could appear with the wrong color and much darker as the LED or phosphor does not emit the wavelength it reflects. The best color rendition CFL and LEDs use a mix of phosphors, resulting in less efficiency but better quality of light. Though incandescent halogen lamps have a more orange color temperature, they are still the best easily available artificial light sources in terms of color