Could we cut the crap on the "Father" of the LED. Holonyak developed the VISIBLE LED. He would not have developed the visible LED, with the previous work on the infrared. Just like the maser preceded the laser.
From my comment on the NYTIMES
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes....
"As others have mentioned below, great inventions in science are not invented in a vacuum, but built on the work of many others. Before Dr. Holonyak, Dr. Rubin Braunstein of RCA first observed infrared emission from III-V compounds, and later Dr. Robert Biard patented the first infrared LED at Texas instruments. They are still alive, and happy to have contributed to the field. (Please see wiki ref below)
(By the way Drs Robert J Biard and Rubin Braunstein are still alive and breathing, I talked to Dr. Biard yesterday in Texas, and (full disclosure, my father) Dr. Braunstein in Los Angeles.) Nick Holoynak was not the inventor of the LED he but the visible LED, the infrared LED preceded the visible LED. Why don't you ask Braunsteina and Biard what they think.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
From above link:
"Rubin Braunstein[16] of the Radio Corporation of America reported on infrared emission from gallium arsenide (GaAs) and other semiconductor alloys in 1955.[17]
.......
In the fall of 1961, while working at Texas Instruments Inc. in Dallas, TX, James R. Biard and Gary Pittman found that gallium arsenide (GaAs) emitted infrared light when electric current was applied. On August 8, 1962, Biard and Pittman filed a patent titled "Semiconductor Radiant Diode" based on their findings, which described a zinc diffused pÃ"n junction LED with a spaced cathode contact to allow for efficient emission of infrared light under forward bias.........
