An LED is an electrical circuit element made up of p-type and n-type

semiconductors.
The n-type has excess free electrons while the p-type has spare holes. On the
boundary
where both types of semiconductors meet, the free electrons of the n-type
recombine with
the holes of the p-type which creates a depletion zone. This zone is negatively
charged
on the p-type side and positively charged on the n-type side. The recombination
causes
an electric field on the boundary to inhibit the movement of free electrons through
the
depletion zone.

If the LED is connected to a voltage source and the voltage is sufficiently high to
give
the electrons enough energy to overcome the electric field in the depletion zone,
then
the electrons can flow from the n-type to the p-type material and recombine with
the
holes, as seen in Figure 1. During recombination, electrons go from a higher energy
level
the conduction band to a lower energy level the valence band. Light will then be
emitted, with the band gap, which is difference between the conduction band and
the
valence band, equal to the energy of the emitted light. The minimum voltage
needed for
the electron and hole to recombine is called the turn-on voltage.

Figure 1: Electrons and holes recombination [2]

The emitted photon has energy equal to the product of the electron charge e and
the
LEDs turn-on voltage V0, given by the equation

E = eV0 (2)
Substituting this into Eq. (1), it then follows that
E = hf = hc
= eV0 (3)
The equation above allows us to compute for the Plancks constant using the
frequency
of the emitted photon and the LEDs turn-on voltage.
White light, such as sunlight, is a mixture of light waves with many different
wavelengths.
The set of wavelengths in the light from an object is called its spectrum. There are
two
general types of spectra: continuous and discrete. There is complete range of
wavelength
in a continuous spectrum. A rainbow is a continuous spectrum created by water
droplets
in the air. In a discrete spectrum, only selected wavelengths are represented. The
light
from a neon sign is a selection of discrete wavelengths. In this experiment, we shall
study
the light spectra of different light sources using a hand-held spectrometer.
The discrete lines in the emission spectrum can be explained by treating light as a
photon that is emitted by an atom. In the quantum model of the atom, electrons
exist
only in specific energy states. The photon emitted from an atom when an electron
falls
from an excited energy state to a lower state is limited to the difference between
these
two states, so only specific energies of light are emitted. The energy of the emitted
light
is described by [1]
E = hc
(1)
where h is Plancks constant whose value is h = 6.626 10 34Js and is the
wavelength of the light.