Can magnets destroy notification light on phone? I'm posting this question here because it's about magnets and electronics. Please tell me if it's better suited to another site!
I've been messing around with some reasonably strong magnets around my Nexus 4 phone (yes, I know that's stupid). Now my LED notification light isn't working. Could the cause of this possibly be interference from the magnets?
The magnets are strongly attracted to each other - but not to my phone - and are like large capsules, about 5cm long and 1cm wide. I don't know exactly which metal they're made of but I'll hazard a guess at iron.
If you want any more details please ask me!
 A: As a solid state physicist, I can actually put a quick opinion in.
In short, yes, it could theoretically happen. Using an over-simplification, LEDs work by "pushing electrons over a cliff," but if the material you made the LED out of became permanently magnetized, it could destroy that cliff (or make it a "different" not-light-producing cliff, but analogies can only take us so far).
Can it practically happen? My first guess is no. I'd assume the magnetic fields would hurt other parts of the phone (such as a MOSFET controlling the LED) before destroying an LED. LEDs are made out of semiconductors, which generally don't respond nearly as well as other things to magnetic fields. Their "cliffs" are made by atoms with particular valence electrons missing, and destroying those energy cliffs would require moving the physical atoms, which, by the way, are bound in a crystal lattice. This requires a good amount of energy.
I would be interested to see what a phone repair store says or to take a voltmeter to various parts in the phone. My bet is that it isn't the LED, but some other component it relies upon.
