Excess carrier injection can be performed via optical pumping of n-type material in which high quantum efficiency is expected. GaAs LEDs are good candidates for the pumping source since they already exhibit high external efficiency and they are cheap. Moreover, such disadvantages of narrow band p-n junctions as high tunnel and leakage currents are easily eliminated in a construction with broad band injector (GaAs) and narrow band recombination area (say, InAsSb or InSb).

OP LEDs consume more electrical power than conventional mid-IR LEDs due to high electrical bias and thus they may suffer from Joule heating. Due to the absence of several routines in LED fabrication such as p-n junction formation and photolithography processes with mid-IR material the above disadvantage is, however, balanced by low device price. Moreover, the proposed LED design is easy to use in fibre optical applications when flat fibre end “glued”  directly onto an OP LED surface. The design is advantageous for the immersion lens package providing narrow far field and ~ 3-5 fold increase of the output power in comparison with the surface emitting LEDs.