Early history
The first report of electrically generated light by emission from a solid-state device came from H.J. Round working at Marconi Electronics in 1907 [1]. He applied voltage across two contacts on a carborundum (SiC) crystal. At low voltages yellow light was observed, but more colours were emitted at higher voltages. Electroluminescence was also studied by O. Losev (1903-1942), a device physicist in the Soviet Union, who in the 1920s and 1930s published several articles in international journals on electroluminescence from carborundum [2].