Infrared (IR) LED is a special-purpose LED that emits invisible infrared beam. It is widely used in remote control transmitter and night-vision cameras.
These are IR LEDs with two leads - positive and negative. They came in clear or blue lens. They emit IR beam in 940nm wavelength, which is very common and can be listened by almost all IR receivers.
They are great on PCB. They go easily into a breadboard as well. Each pack has 5 LEDs.
If you want to build a DIY remote control, check out the IR receiver/sensor. They make a great pair.
Tips:
Since IR beam is invisible and cannot be seen by human eye, how do you know that it works? Easy, most mobile phone cameras can see infrareds. Just point your mobile phone camera to the infrared light source and you will see the beam.
Specialized module such as Pi NoIR camera for Raspberry Pi is designed to capture IR photos.
