A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (corresponding to the energy of the photons) is determined by the energy required for electrons to cross the band gap of the semiconductor. White light is obtained by using multiple semiconductors or a layer of light-emitting phosphor on the semiconductor device.
Phototransistors are either tri-terminal (emitter, base and collector) or bi-terminal (emitter and collector) semiconductor devices which have a light-sensitive base region. Although all transistors exhibit light-sensitive nature, these are specially designed and optimized for photo applications. These are made of diffusion or ion-implantation and have much larger collector and base regions in comparison with the ordinary transistors. These devices can be either homojunction structured or heterojunction structured
