Tunable white light based on polarization sensitive light-emitting diodes

A method for emitting white light, comprising:

• (a) emitting a primary light from a first light source, wherein the primary light is comprised of blue light and has a first polarization direction;
• (b) emitting a secondary light from a second light source, wherein:
• the secondary light is comprised of yellow polarized light, and the primary light and the secondary light are combined to produce a white light,
• the second light source is a phosphor optically pumped by the first light source, and
• the phosphor has a structure that maintains the first polarization direction of the blue light, so that the yellow polarized light has the first polarization direction of the blue light;
• and
• (c) controlling the primary light's intensity using a polarizer, wherein a rotation of the polarizer varies an alignment of its polarization axis with respect to the first polarization direction, which varies transmission of the primary light through the polarizer, which controls a color co-ordinate or hue of the white light.

A method of fabricating a white light-emitting device for emitting polarized white light, comprising:

• providing one or more Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), Super Luminescent Diodes (SLDs), or Laser Diodes (LDs) that emit at least blue polarized light;
• and
• positioning one or more phosphors for emitting yellow polarized light when optically pumped by the blue polarized light, wherein:
• the LEDs, SLDs, or LDs are nonpolar or semipolar III-nitride LEDs, SLDs, or LDs;
• the phosphors have a structure that maintains a polarization of the blue polarized light, so that the yellow polarized light has the polarization of the blue polarized light;
• and
• a combination of the blue polarized light and the yellow polarized light is polarized white light having a same polarization as the blue polarized light.