Which energy is easier to catch? LED or laser

[fisico30]

Hello Forum,

I understand the difference between LEDs and lasers: both operate at optical frequencies, but the LEd has a larger beam divergence and a higher spectral content, less temporal coherence...

Assuming we are able create the same beam divergence for a laser as for a LED (using lenses), and we want to collect energy within a box, a resonator that has an aperture, which one will be better? Which one will allow most of the energy to enter the box in the easier way?

thanks
fisico30

 

[Drakkith]

What do you think? What are the properties of the optical cavity that determine the amount of energy collected?

 

[fisico30]

Well, a cavity has its resonant modes. So technically, if the LED, which has more frequencies, has some frequencies that correspond to the resonant frequencies of the cavity maybe more energy is delivered by the LED inside the cavity...

 

[Drakkith]

Have you considered the intensity emitted in each frequency? What's better, 90% of the light being within a narrow range of frequencies corrosponding to a mode of the cavity, or a much smaller percentage in the same mode and another small percentage in another mode?

 

[fisico30]

Well, it seems that if the LED and the laser have the same power, it depends on the attenuation that each mode suffers...more modes more likely to have more energy.
without attenuation it seems it would not matter...
What would matter is which way is easier to get the energy inside the cavity...