Electronic – Do standard white LEDs produce a full spectrum of light

ledlight

At places like Radioshack, small (and sometimes large) LEDs are available that are labeled to be "white". This is a link to a Radioshack page for such an LED: http://www.radioshack.com/5mm-white-led/2760320.html#q=white%2Bled&start=2

Does a light like this produce a full spectrum of light, such that appropriate light filters could produce any spectrum of visible light?

Best Answer

@Shamtam have already commented that:
(1) the light from a typical while LED doesn't match the spectrum of the sunlight
(2) white LEDs are blue LEDs with additional phosphor

This is to expand on @Shamtam's comment.

enter image description here Spectrum of a white LED showing blue light directly emitted by the GaN-based LED (peak at about 465 nm) and the more broadband emitted by the phosphor.
(source: Wikipedia)

enter image description here Diagram of the spectrum a LED lamp (blue), a CFL (green) and an Incandescent (purple) superimposed the solar spectrum (yellow). Note that the energy used by each lamp is at least the area underneath its curve.
(source)

Related Topic