A solution processed flexible nanocomposite electrode with efficient light extraction for organic light emitting diodes.

Highly efficient organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on multiple layers of vapor evaporated small molecules, indium tin oxide transparent electrode, and glass substrate have been extensively investigated and are being commercialized. The light extraction from the exciton radiative decay is limited to less than 30% due to plasmonic quenching on the metallic cathode and the waveguide in the multi-layer sandwich structure. Here we report a flexible nanocomposite electrode comprising single-walled carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires stacked and embedded in the surface of a polymer substrate. Nanoparticles of barium strontium titanate are dispersed within the substrate to enhance light extraction efficiency. Green polymer OLED (PLEDs) fabricated on the nanocomposite electrode exhibit a maximum current efficiency of 118 cd/A at 10,000 cd/m(2) with the calculated external quantum efficiency being 38.9%. The efficiencies of white PLEDs are 46.7 cd/A and 30.5%, respectively. The devices can be bent to 3 mm radius repeatedly without significant loss of electroluminescent performance. The nanocomposite electrode could pave the way to high-efficiency flexible OLEDs with simplified device structure and low fabrication cost

White organic light-emitting diodes with an ultra-thin premixed emitting layer

We described an approach to achieve fine color control of fluorescent White Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLED), based on an Ultra-thin Premixed emitting Layer (UPL). The UPL consists of a mixture of two dyes (red-emitting 4-di(4'-tert-butylbiphenyl-4-yl)amino-4'-dicyanovinylbenzene or fvin and green-emitting 4-di(4'-tert-butylbiphenyl-4-yl)aminobenzaldehyde or fcho) premixed in a single evaporation cell: since these two molecules have comparable structures and similar melting temperatures, a blend can be evaporated, giving rise to thin films of identical and reproducible composition compared to those of the pre-mixture. The principle of fine color tuning is demonstrated by evaporating a 1-nm-thick layer of this blend within the hole-transport layer (4,4'-bis[N-(1-naphtyl)-N-phenylamino]biphenyl (\alpha-NPB)) of a standard fluorescent OLED structure. Upon playing on the position of the UPL inside the hole-transport layer, as well as on the premix composition, two independent parameters are available to finely control the emitted color. Combined with blue emission from the heterojunction, white light with Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage 1931 color coordinates (0.34, 0.34) was obtained, with excellent color stability with the injected current. The spectrum reveals that the fcho material does not emit light due to efficient energy transfer to the red-emitting fvin compound but plays the role of a host matrix for fvin, allowing for a very precise adjustment of the red dopant amount in the device

Luminescence in sulfides : a rich history and a bright future

Sulfide-based luminescent materials have attracted a lot of attention for a wide range of photo-, cathodo- and electroluminescent applications. Upon doping with Ce3+ and Eu2+, the luminescence can be varied over the entire visible region by appropriately choosing the composition of the sulfide host. Main application areas are flat panel displays based on thin film electroluminescence, field emission displays and ZnS-based powder electroluminescence for backlights. For these applications, special attention is given to BaAl2S4:Eu, ZnS:Mn and ZnS:Cu. Recently, sulfide materials have regained interest due to their ability (in contrast to oxide materials) to provide a broad band, Eu2+-based red emission for use as a color conversion material in white-light emitting diodes (LEDs). The potential application of rare-earth doped binary alkaline-earth sulfides, like CaS and SrS, thiogallates, thioaluminates and thiosilicates as conversion phosphors is discussed. Finally, this review concludes with the size-dependent luminescence in intrinsic colloidal quantum dots like PbS and CdS, and with the luminescence in doped nanoparticles

Control of a white organic light emitting diode’s emission parameters using a single doped RGB active layer

White Color tuning is an attractive feature that Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) offer. Up until now, there hasn’t been any report that mix both color tuning abilities with device stability. In this work, White OLEDs (W-OLEDs) based on a single RGB blend composed of a blue emitting N,N′-Di(1-naphthyl)-N,N′-diphenyl-(1,1′-biphenyl)-4,4′-diamine (NPB) doped with a green emitting Coumarin-153 and a red emitting 4-(Dicyanomethylene)-2-methyl-6-(4-dimethylaminostyryl)-4H-pyran (DCM1) dyes were produced. The final device structure was ITO/Blend/Bathocuproine (BCP)/ Tris(8-hydroxyquinolinato)aluminium (Alq3)/Al with an emission area of 0.25 cm2. The effects of the changing in DCM1’s concentration (from 0.5% to 1% wt.) allowed a tuning in the final white color resulting in devices capable of emitting a wide range of tunes – from cool to warm – while also keeping a low device complexity and a high stabilitty. Moreover, an explanation on the optoelectrical behavior of the device is presented. The best electroluminescense (EL) points toward 160 cd/m2 of brightness and 1.1 cd/A of efficiency, both prompted to being enhanced. An Impedance Spectroscopy (IS) analysis allowed to study both the effects of BCP as a Hole Blocking Layer and as an aging probe of the device. Finally, as a proof of concept, the emission was increased 9 and 64 times proving this structure can be effectively applied for general lighting

Structural and spectral dynamics of single-crystalline Ruddlesden-Popper phase halide perovskite blue light-emitting diodes.

Achieving perovskite-based high-color purity blue-emitting light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is still challenging. Here, we report successful synthesis of a series of blue-emissive two-dimensional Ruddlesden-Popper phase single crystals and their high-color purity blue-emitting LED demonstrations. Although this approach successfully achieves a series of bandgap emissions based on the different layer thicknesses, it still suffers from a conventional temperature-induced device degradation mechanism during high-voltage operations. To understand the underlying mechanism, we further elucidate temperature-induced device degradation by investigating the crystal structural and spectral evolution dynamics via in situ temperature-dependent single-crystal x-ray diffraction, photoluminescence (PL) characterization, and density functional theory calculation. The PL peak becomes asymmetrically broadened with a marked intensity decay, as temperature increases owing to [PbBr6]4- octahedra tilting and the organic chain disordering, which results in bandgap decrease. This study indicates that careful heat management under LED operation is a key factor to maintain the sharp and intense emission

Optimal Color Stability for White Organic Light-Emitting Diode (WOLED) by Using Multiple-Ultra-Thin Layers (MUTL)

The work demonstrates the improvement of color stability for white organic light-emitting diode (WOLED). The devices were prepared by vacuum deposition on ITO-glass substrates. These guest materials of 5,6,11,12-tetraphenylnaphthacene (Rubrene) were deposited in 4,4′-bis(2,2-diphenyl vinyl)-1,1′-biphenyl (DPVBi), resulting in an emitting layer. Experimental results reveal that the properties in the multiple-ultra-thin layer (MUTL) are better than those of the emitting layer with a single guest material, reaching the commercial white-light wavelength requirement of 400–700 nm. The function of the MUTL is as the light-emitting and trapping layer. The results show that the MUTL has excellent carrier capture effect, leading to high color stability of the device at various applied voltages. The Commissions Internationale De L’Eclairage (CIE) coordinate of this device at 3~7 V is few displacement and shows a very slight variation of (0.016, 0.009). The CIE coordinates at a maximal luminance of 9980 cd/m2 are (0.34, 0.33)

Top-Emitting OLEDs: Improvement of the Light Extraction Efficiency and Optimization of Microcavity Effects for White Emission

In the last decades, investigations of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have tackled several key challenges of this lighting technology and have brought the electron to photon conversion efficiency close to unity. However, currently only 20% to 30% of the photons can typically be extracted from OLED structures, as total internal reflection traps the major amount of the generated light inside the devices. This work focuses on the optimization of the optical properties of top-emitting OLEDs, in which the emission is directed away from the substrate. In this case, opaque materials, e.g. a metal foil or a display backplane can be used as substrate as well. Even though top-emitting OLEDs are often preferred for applications such as displays, two main challenges remain: the application of light extraction structures and the deposition of highly transparent materials as top electrode, without harming the organic layers below. Both issues are addressed in this work. First, top-emitting OLEDs are deposited on top of periodically corrugated light outcoupling structures, in order to extract internally trapped light modes by Bragg scattering and to investigate the basic scattering mechanisms in these devices. It is shown for the first time that the electrical performance is maintained in corrugated top-emitting OLEDs deposited on top of light extraction structures. Furthermore, as no adverse effects to the internal quantum efficiency have been observed, the additional emission from previously trapped light modes directly increases the device efficiency. It has been proven that the spectral emission of corrugated OLEDs is determined by the interference of all light modes inside the air light-cone, including the observation of destructive interference and anti-crossing phenomena. The formation of a coherently coupled mode pair of the initial radiative cavity mode and a Bragg scattered mode has been first observed, when grating structures with an aspect ratio > 0.2 are applied. There, the radiative cavity mode partially vanishes. The observation and analysis of such new emission phenomena in corrugated top-emitting OLEDs has been essential in obtaining a detailed insight on fundamental scattering processes as well as for the optimization and control of the spectral emission by light extraction structures. Second, the adverse impact of using only moderately transparent silver electrodes in white top-emitting OLEDs has been compensated improving the metal film morphology, as the organic materials often prevent a replacement by state-of-the-art electrodes, like Indium-tin-oxide (ITO). A high surface energy Au wetting layer, also in combination with MoO3, deposited underneath the Ag leads to smooth, homogeneous, and closed films. This allows to decrease the silver thickness from the state-of-the-art 15 nm to 3 nm, which has the advantage of increasing the transmittance significantly while maintaining a high conductivity. Thereby, a transmittance comparable to the ITO benchmark has been reached in the wavelength regime of the emitters. White top-emitting OLEDs using the wetting layer electrodes outperform state-of-the art top-emitting devices with neat Ag top electrodes, by improving the angular colorstability, the color rendering, and the device efficiency, further reaching sightly improved characteristics compared to references with ITO bottom electrode. The enormous potential of wetting layer metal electrodes in improving the performance of OLEDs has been further validated in inverted top-emitting devices, which are preferred for display applications, as well as transparent OLEDs, in which the brittle ITO electrode is replaced by a wetting layer electrode. Combining both concepts, wetting layer electrodes and light extraction structures, allows for the optimization of the grating-OLED system. The impact of destructive mode interference has been reduced and thus the efficiency increased by a decrease of the top electrode thickness, which would have not been achieved without a wetting layer. The optimization of corrugated white top-emitting OLEDs with a top electrode of only 2 nm gold and 7 nm silver on top of a grating with depth of 150 nm and period of 0.8 µm have yielded a reliable device performance and increased efficiency by a factor of 1.85 compared to a planar reference (5.0% to 9.1% EQE at 1000 cd/m2). This enhancement is comparable to common light extraction structures, such as half-sphere lenses or microlens foils, which are typically restricted to bottom-emitting devices. Overall, the deposition of top-emitting OLEDs on top of light extraction structures finally allow for an efficient extraction of internally trapped light modes from these devices, while maintaining a high device yield. Finally, the investigations have resulted in a significant efficiency improvement of top-emitting OLEDs and the compensation of drawbacks (optimization of the white light emission and the extraction of internal light modes) in comparison to the bottom-emitting devices. The investigated concepts are beneficial for OLEDs in general, since the replacement of the brittle ITO electrodes and the fabrication of roll-to-roll processing compatible light extraction structures are also desirable for bottom-emitting, or transparent OLEDs

Más allá de los emisores tradicionales en células electroquímicas emisoras de luz

Tesis doctoral inédita leída en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias, Departamento de Física Aplicada. Fecha de lectura: 09-09-202