Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Shohei Fujiwara

Morio Inoue

Haruyoshi Yamanaka

Tamotsu Uragaki

When gallium phosphide is etched with hot phosphoric acid from the surface of a crystal having a (1 1 1) plane, the etched surface becomes a flat and smooth plane inclined at an angle of 45.degree. to 55.degree. to the (1 1 1) plane. Accordingly, when an electroluminescent diode is manufactured by forming a p-n junction on a gallium phosphide crystal having a (1 1 1) plane and etching the crystal with a hot concentrated phosphoric acid etching solution to form a mesa structure, the side faces of the resulting crystal becomes inclined to the plane of the junction at an angle of nearly 45.degree. so that the visible rays generated in the p-n junction are totally reflected on the side faces, thus markedly increasing the intensity of emitted rays in the direction of the optical axis perpendicular to the principal plane of the p-n junction.

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Takatsuki, Japan

Shohei Fujiwara