Cause of LED Efficiency Droop Finally Revealed (found via Slashdot )
This means brighter flashlights right? 
-PG
Alright then. I’m never making another auger recommendation again.
On a serious note, does anyone know off the top of their head what auger recombination is?
ha ha, I read exactly the same thing and wondered what anyone would use an auger on a flashlight for.
Interesting article and makes sense too:
as best I understand it, it’s what happens when an electron coming in to an atom kicks another one out and that one hits another atom but without enough energy to emit light, so that energy is emitted as heat instead. Given that LEDs work (I think) on the basis of electon-hole combinations having a lower energy than either alone and that difference is emitted as a photon, anything that sucks up that energy and prevents it being emitted as light (but heat instead) reduces efficiency. I imagine that at higher current (and electron) densities, the probability of this “off-target” effect happening is higher, hence lower light output per input at higher inputs.
I think. Then again, I nearly failed high school physics, so hopefully someone else will chime in
I’m guessing that to get around this they’d need to channel the electrons or something, so that they don’t go pinging off randomly all over the place. I’ll have to mention that to Cree next time they ask me 
So if I’m reading what you wrote correctly, I will need to get an even finer soldering tip if I want to maintain high efficiencies while pushing LED’s hard.
erm, I don’t know. I think that their more referring to what goes on inside the LED substrate than how it’s handled
Sorry, it was a poor attempt at humor. I guess I better not quite my day job yet.
ah, I wondered if that’s the case. I tend to er on the side of caution with humor on the internet after p!ssing people off unintentionally!
Funny saying:
You can push the envelope, but it will always remain stationary.
Makes me chuckle everytime I go into my post office
That actually sounds like a good policy. You’re absolutely right that a lot of misunderstandings happen that way.
I really did appreciate your explanation by the way. The humor was just trying to make light of fact that I can’t do anything about auger recombination in my leds. I really, really, hope that progress is made on that front by people that can though.
Thank you again mattthemuppet.
EDIT: The pun (“light”) was unintentional.
hey, no worries That’s just my quasi-layman’s explanation of what’s going on - I was somewhat hoping someone more knowledgeable would chime in!
It’ll be interesting to see what happens though. As the article stated, it’s really key to the adoption of LED lighting as right now manufacturers have to choose between expensive and efficient (lots of LEDs at low drive currents) or cheap and mediocre efficiency vs. CFL. Obviously, we’d all stand to benefit too, as a side affect