First lecture of the new term, and half way through "Wide bandgap materials", we get a brief history of SiC (sillicon carbide).
- 1827 SiC first observed
- Found use as a hard abrasive (think sandpaper)
- 1907 first SiC LED
- 1955 high quality crystal growth
- 1978 seeded sublimation
- 1981 SiC growth on Si wafers
WTF? I though semiconductor devices didn't exist until the 40s/50s, when new understanding of these semiconducting materials like galium eventually lead to the first transistor. 1907 for LEDs seems way too early.
What became of this LED? Why wasn't it explored?
I'm no historian but a physicist, so I'm probably in danger of providing a post that doesn't satisfy the criteria of this subreddit. but maybe it helps until something better comes up.
apparently the development of quantum mechanics made the development of transistors possible from the 40s/50s on and the general theoretical understanding of semiconductors (in fact solid state) got better then, while certain semiconducting materials were already known as soon as the mid 19th century (and could be dealt with experimentally). the theoretical understanding also lead to enabling physicists to create more exotic semiconducting materials (with different properties).