Are “Superluminous Diodes” better or different than super bright LEDs ?

Peter Jenkins (PJ) and I are competitors in business but friends in search of the truth about LLLT devices,  mechanisms, treatment method and dose. We have different strengths and one of Peters is his nose for BS and willingness to dig up the truth and write about it on public forums.

I was cruising the net as you do reading blogs and PR nonsense about LLLT when I read for the thousandth time a reference to “Superluminous Diodes”. So I dropped PJ a line to ask for his view on the use of these terms, and with his permission I am publishing his response:

On 1/26/11 1:58 PM, “James Carroll” wrote:
PJ
Just want to make sure we are on the same page on this …
Superluminous Diodes are a marketing hype term used exclusively by the LED therapy / LLLT industry and no better than LEDs right ?

On 26 Jan 2011, at 11:21, Peter A Jenkins wrote:

There are such devices – correctly called ‘superluminescent diodes’ – but they are rarely used in LLLT/LEDT due to their cost.
Superluminescent diodes are a crossover-type device that essentially operates like an edge-emitting laser diode at the lasing threshold, so it’s not lasing but is producing a beam that is of better quality and higher intensity/brightness than that of an LED.
They’re usually used in imaging operations where monochromaticy is desired but the coherence is not (due to the ‘noise’ of the speckle field).
Typically those devices used for LEDT are what the LED industry generally calls ‘super-bright’, although some Chinese LED producers occasionally – and incorrectly – use the terms ‘super luminous’ and ‘superluminescent’ to mean the same thing.
Googling “superluminous diode” shows up 2330 results, most of which are about LEDT/LLLT, which shows the limited application of the term.
OR, the short answer…
Pretty much.

PJ wrote a bit more about this on his web site http://www.spectramedics.com/index.php?id=91