High efficiency blue phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes without electron transport layer

High efficiency blue phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes were fabricated without an electron transport layer using a spirobifluorene based blue triplet host material. The simple blue PHOLEDs without the electron transport layer showed a high external quantum efficiency and current efficiency of 16.1% and 30.2 cd/A, respectively. The high device performances of the electron transport layer free blue PHOLEDs were comparable to those of blue PHOLEDs with the electron transport layer.     

Stable efficiency roll-off in red phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes using a spirofluorene-benzofluorene based carbazole type host material

Red phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (PHOLEDs) with stable efficiency roll-off were developed using a spirofluorene-benzofluorene based carbazole type host material. 9-(Spiro[benzo[c]fluorene-7,9′-fluorene]-2′-yl)-9H-carbazole with a spiro[benzofluorene-7,9′-fluorene] and a carbazole unit was synthesized and it was used as the host material for the red PHOLED. The quantum efficiency of the red PHOLED was optimized at a doping concentration of 1% and the efficiency decrease at 10,000 cd/m² from the maximum efficiency was less than 10%.     

High efficiency rubrene based inverted top-emission organic light emitting devices with a mixed single layer

Inverted top-emission organic light emitting devices (TEOLEDs) with a mixed single layer by mixing of electron transport materials (PyPySPyPy and Alq₃), hole transport material (α-NPD) and dope material (rubrene) were investigated. Maximum power efficiency of 3.5 lm/W and maximum luminance of 7000 cd/m² were obtained by optimizing the mixing ratio of PyPySPyPy:Alq₃:α-NPD:rubrene=25:50:25:1. Luminance and power efficiency of mixed single layer device were two times improved compared to bi-layer heterojunction device and tri-layer heterojunction device. Lifetime test also shows that the mixed single layer device exhibits longer operational lifetimes of 343 h, which is three times longer than the 109 h for tri-layer device, and two times longer than the 158 h for bi-layer device. In addition, the maximum luminance and power efficiency were obtained at 20,000 cd/m² and 7.5 lm/W, respectively, when a TPD layer of 45 nm was capped onto the top metal electrode.     

Non-doped phosphorescent white organic light-emitting devices with a quadruple-quantum-well structure

Non-doped white organic light-emitting devices (WOLEDs) with a quadruple-quantum-well structure were fabricated. An alternate layer of ultrathin blue and yellow iridium complexes was employed as the potential well layer, while potential barrier layers (PBLs) were chosen to be 2,2',2''-(1,3,5-benzenetriyl)-tris(1-phenyl-1-H-benzimidazole) (TPBi) or N,N'-dicarbazolyl-3,5-benzene (mCP) combined TPBi. On adjusting the PBLs for device performance comparison, the results showed that the device with all-TPBi PBLs exhibited a yellow emission with the color coordinates of (0.50,0.47) at a luminance of 1000 cd/m², while stable white emission with the color coordinates of (0.36,0.44) was observed in the device using mCP combined TPBi as the PBLs. Meanwhile, for the WOLED, with a reduced efficiency roll-off, a maximum luminance, luminous efficiency, and external quantum efficiency of 12,610 cd/m², 10.2 cd/A, and 4.4%, respectively, were achieved. The performance improvement by the introduction of mCP PBL was ascribed to the well confined exciton and the reduced exciton quenching effect in the multiple emission regions.     

Efficient bright white organic light-emitting diode based on non-doped ultrathin 5,6,11,12-tetraphenylnaphthacene layer

High-performance undoped white organic light-emitting diode (OLED) has been fabricated using an ultrathin yellow-emitting layer of 5,6,11,12-tetraphenylnaphthacene (rubrene) inserted at two sides of interface between two N,N′-bis-(1-naphthyl)-N,N′- biphenyl-1,1′-biphenyl-4,4′- diamine (NPB) layers as a hole transporting and blue emissive layer, respectively. The results showed that a maximum luminance of the device reached to as high as 21,500 cd/m² at 15 V. The power efficiencies of 2.5 and 1.6 lm/W at a luminance of 1000 and 10000 cd/m², respectively, were obtained. The peaks of electroluminescent (EL) spectra locate at 429 and 560 nm corresponding to the Commissions Internationale De L’Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of (0.32, 0.33), which is independent of bias voltage. The performance enhancement of the device may result from direct charge carrier trapping in rubrene. Energy transfer mechanism was also found in the EL process.     

Low driving voltage in white organic light-emitting diodes using an interfacial energy barrier free multilayer emitting structure

The driving voltage of white organic light-emitting diodes (WOLEDs) with blue fluorescent and red phosphorescent emitting materials was lowered by using a device architecture with little energy barrier between emitting layers. A mixed layer of hole and electron transport materials was used as a host material and an interlayer, reducing the driving voltage of WOLEDs. The driving voltage of WOLEDs was reduced by more than 4 V and power efficiency of WOLEDs was improved by more than 40% due to little energy barrier for holes and electrons injection in light-emitting layer. In addition, there was little change of electroluminescence spectra from 100 to 10,000 cd/m².     

Solution-processed white organic light-emitting devices based on small-molecule materials

We investigated solution-processed films of 4,4′-bis(2,2-diphenylvinyl)-1,1′-bibenyl (DPVBi) and its blends with N,N′-bis(3-methylphenyl)-(1,1′-biphenyl)-4,4′-diamine (TPD) by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The AFM result shows that the solution-processed films are pin-free and their morphology is smooth enough to be used in OLEDs. We have developed a solution-processed white organic light-emitting device (WOLEDs) based on small-molecules, in which the light-emitting layer (EML) was formed by spin-coating the solution of small-molecules on top of the solution-processed hole-transporting layer. This WOLEDs, in which the EML consists of co-host (DPVBi and TPD), the blue dopant (4,4′-bis[2-(4-(N,N-diphenylamino)phenyl)vinyl]biphenyl) and the yellow dye (5,6,11,12-tetraphenylnaphtacene), has a current efficiency of 6.0 cd/A at a practical luminance of 1000 cd/m², a maximum luminance of 22500 cd/m², and its color coordinates are quite stable. Our research shows a possible approach to achieve efficient and low-cost small-molecule-based WOLEDs, which avoids the complexities of the co-evaporation process of multiple dopants and host materials in vacuum depositions.     

高效率有机蓝光和白光电致发光器件

以蓝光材料FIrpic同时掺杂空穴传输层TCTA和电子传输层TPBI,制备了具有双发光层的高效率蓝光器件(D-BOLED),D-BOLED最大发光效率达23.4 cd/A,比单发光层蓝光器件(S-BOLED)提高了约36.8%.这是因为双发光层结构能够更有效地利用扩散到激子复合界面两边载流子传输层的三线态激子.结合基于...     

Photoluminescence and electroluminescence of a novel green-yellow emitting material-5,6-Bis-[4-(naphthalene-1-yl-phenyl-amino)-phenyl]-pyrazine-2,3-dicarbonitrile

A new compound with intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) property—5,6-Bis-[4-(naphthalene-1-yl-phenyl-amino)-phenyl]-pyrazine-2,3-dicarbonitrile(BNPPDC) was synthesized. The new compound was strongly fluorescent in non-polar and moderately polar solvents, as well as in thin solid film. The absorption and emission maxima shifted to longer wavelength with increasing solvent polarity. The fluorescence quantum yield also increased with increasing solvent polarity from non-polar to moderately polar solvents, then decreased with further increase of solvent polarity. This indicates both “positive” and “negative” solvatokinetic effects co-existed. Using this material as hole-transporting emitter and host emitter, we fabricated two electroluminescent (EL) devices with structures of A (ITO/BNPPDC (45 nm)/1,3,5-tris(N-phenylbenzimidazol-2-yl)benzene (TPBI) (45 nm)/Mg:Ag (200 nm) and B (ITO/N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis-(3-methylphenyl) (1,1′-diphenyl)4,4′-diamine (TPD) (50 nm)/BNPPDC (20 nm)/1,3,5-tris(N-phenylbenzimidazol-2-yl)benzene (TPBI) (45 nm)/Mg:Ag (200 nm). The devices showed green-yellow EL emission with good efficiency and high brightness. For example, the device A exhibited a high brightness of 17400 cd/m² at a driving voltage of 11 V and a very low turn-on voltage (2.9 V), as well as a maximum luminous efficiency 3.61 cd/A. The device B showed a similar performance with a high brightness of 12650 cd/m² at a driving voltage of 13 V and a maximum luminous efficiency 3.62 cd/A. In addition, the EL devices using BNPPDC as a host and 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-t-butyl-6-(1,1,7,7-tetramethyljulolidyl-9-enyl)-4H-pyran (DCJTB) as a dopant (configuration: ITO/TPD (60 nm)/BNPPDC:DCJTB (2%) (30 nm)/TPBI (35 nm)/Mg:Ag (200 nm)) showed a good performance with a brightness of 150 cd/m² at 4.5 V, a maximum brightness of 12600 cd/m² at 11.5 V, and a maximum luminous efficiency of 3.30 cd/A.     

Highly efficient all phosphorescent white organic light-emitting diodes for solid state lighting applications

We report highly efficient all phosphorescent white organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with an exciton-confinement structure. By stacking two emissive layers (EMLs) with different charge transporting properties, effective charges as well as exciton confinements were achieved. Accordingly, efficient blue OLEDs with a peak external quantum efficiency (EQE) over 22% and power efficacy (PE) over 50 lm/W were developed by using iridium(III) bis(4,6-(difluorophenyl) pyridinato-N,C2′)picolinate (FIrpic) as an electro-phosphorescent dopant. When the optimized orange and red EMLs were sandwiched between the stacked two blue EMLs, white OLEDs with an EQE and PE of 24.3% and 45.9 lm/W at a luminance of 1000 cd/m² were obtained without the use of any out-coupling techniques. In addition, these white OLEDs exhibit a color rendering index (CRI) value of 84 with high efficacy.     

Bright white light electroluminescent devices based on efficient management of singlet and triplet excitons

Efficient and bright white organic light-emitting devices (WOLEDs) based on phosphor sensitized fluorescence are improved by using an unusual device structure, in which phosphorescent emissive layer is sandwiched between two blue fluorescent doped ones. This architecture allows for resonant energy transfer from both the host singlet and triplet energy levels that minimizes exchange energy losses. Thus, a WOLED with a maximum luminous efficiency of 11.63 cd/A, a maximum power efficiency of 7.37 lm/W, a maximum luminance of 31,770 cd/m², and Commission Internationale de L’Eclairage coordinates of (0.34, 0.36) is achieved.     

White organic electroluminescence from fluorescent bis (2-(2-hydroxyphenyl) benzoxazolate)zinc doped with phosphorescent material

Efficient white electroluminescence has been obtained by using an electroluminescent layer comprising of a blue fluorescent bis (2-(2-hydroxyphenyl) benzoxazolate)zinc [Zn(hpb)₂] doped with red phosphorescent bis (2-(2′-benzothienyl) pyridinato-N,C^3′)iridium(acetylacetonate) [Ir(btp)₂acac] molecules. The color coordinates of the white emission spectrum was controlled by optimizing the concentration of red dopant in the blue fluorescent emissive layer. Organic light-emitting diodes were fabricated in the configuration ITO/α-NPD/Zn(hpb)₂:0.01 wt%Ir(btp)₂acac/BCP/Alq₃/LiF/Al. The J-V-L characteristic of the device shows a turn on voltage of 5 V. The electroluminescence (EL) spectra of the device cover a wide range of visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum with three peaks around 450, 485 and 610 nm. A maximum white luminance of 3500 cd/m² with CIE coordinates of (x, y=0.34, 0.27) at 15 V has been achieved. The maximum current efficiency and power efficiency of the device was 5.2 cd/A and 1.43 lm/W respectively at 11.5 V.     

Efficient polymer white-light-emitting diodes with a single-emission layer of fluorescent polymer blend

Efficient polymer white-light-emitting diodes (WPLEDs) have been fabricated with a single layer of fluorescent polymer blend. The device structure consists of ITO/PEDOT/PVK/emissive layer/Ba/Al. The emissive layer is a blend of poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene) (PFO), phenyl-substituted PPV derivative (P-PPV) and a copolymer of 9,9-dioctylfluorene and 4,7-di(4-hexylthien-2-yl)-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole (PFO-DHTBT), which, respectively, emits blue, green and red light. The emission of pure and efficient white light was implemented by tuning the blend weight ratio of PFO: P-PPV: PFO-DHTBT to 96:4:0.4. The maximum current efficiency and luminance are, respectively, 7.6 cd/A at 6.7 V and 11930 cd/m² at 11.2 V. The CIE coordinates of white-light emission were stable with the drive voltages.     

Optical and electroluminescent properties of 3,4,6-triphenyl-α-pyrone

The optical and electroluminescent properties of 3,4,6-triphenyl-α-pyrone (α-pyrone), a new blue fluoresce dye, are investigated using films prepared by wet and dry process and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) fabricated with an α-pyrone-emitting layer. The optical properties of α-pyrone are found to be affected by its crystallinity. In the fabrication of OLEDs, wet processing (spin coating) is shown to be more suitable for preparation of the α-pyrone layer than dry processing (thermal evaporation). The best device performance is obtained for a device prepared using poly (n-vinylcarbazole) as the dye host, and a bathocuproine/tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline)aluminum bilayer as a hole-blocking and carrier-injection layer. The maximum luminance of this device is 3000 cd/m² at a current density of 0.2 A/cm², with a current efficiency of 1.8 cd/A at 0.02 A/cm².     

Efficient red light phosphorescence emission in simple bi-layered structure organic devices with fluorescent host-phosphorescent guest system

Highly efficient red phosphorescent devices comprising a simple bi-layered structure using tris(1-phenylisoquinoline)iridium (Ir(piq)₃) doped in a narrow band-gap fluorescent host material, bis(10-hydroxybenzo [h] quinolinato)beryllium complex (Bebq₂) are reported. The driving voltage to reach 1000 cd/m² is 3.5 V in Bebq₂:Ir(piq)₃ red phosphorescent device. With a dopant concentration of as low as 4%, the current and power efficiency values of 8.41 cd/A and 7.34 lm/W are obtained in this PHOLEDs, respectively. External quantum efficiency (EQE) of 14.5% is noticed in this red phosphorescent device, promising to high brightness applications.     

Highly efficient greenish blue-emitting organic diodes based on pyrene derivatives

We report the synthesis of pyrene derivatives as the light emissive layer for highly efficient organic electroluminescence (EL) diodes. Multilayer devices were fabricated with pyrene derivatives (ITO/NPB (50 nm)/blue material (30 nm)/BCP (10 nm)/Alq₃ (30 nm)/LiF (1 nm)/Al). By using 1,1′-dipyrene (DP) and 1,4-dipyrenyl benzene (DPB), the devices produced the blue EL emissions with 1931 Commission International de L’Eclairage coordinates of (x=0.21, y=0.35) and (x=0.19, y=0.25), respectively. The device with DPB shows a maximum brightness of 42,445 cd/m² at 400 mA/cm² and the luminance efficiency of 8.57 cd/A and 5.18 lm/W at 20 mA/cm².     

Efficient white organic light-emitting devices using 4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline as block layer

A white light-emitting device has been fabricated with a structure of ITO/m-MTDATA (45 nm)/NPB (10 nm)/DPVBi (8 nm)/DPVBi:DCJTB 0.5% (15 nm)/BPhen (x nm)/Alq₃ [(55−x) nm]/LiF (1 nm)/Al, with x=0, 4, and 7. BPhen was used as the hole-blocking layer. This results in a mixture of lights from DPVBi molecules (blue-light) and DCJTB (yellow-light) molecules, producing white light emission. The chromaticity can be readily adjusted by only varying the thickness of the BPhen layer. The CIE coordinates of the device are largely insensitive to the driving voltages. When the thickness of BPhen is 7 nm, the device exhibits peak efficiency of 6.87 cd/A (3.59 lm/W) at the applied voltage of 6 V, the maximum external quantum efficiency η_ext=2.07% corresponding to 6.18 cd/A, and the maximum brightness is 18494 cd/m² at 15 V.     

Efficient white organic light-emitting diodes based on an orange iridium phosphorescent complex

Stable and efficient white light emission is obtained by mixing blue fluorescence and orange phosphorescence. The introduction of double exciton blocking layers brings about well confinement of both charge-carriers and excitons in the emission layer. By systematically adjusting blue fluorescent and orange phosphorescent emission layers thickness, carriers in emission zone are balanced, and electrically generated excitons can be efficiently utilized. One white device with power efficiency of 14.4 lm/W at 100 cd/m² has excellently stable spectra. The improvement of performance is attributed to efficient utilization of the excitons and more balance of charge-carriers in emission layer.     

Efficient fluorescent white organic light-emitting devices with a reduced efficiency roll-off based on a blue ambipolar fluorescent emitter

White organic light-emitting devices (WOLEDs) with fluorescent donor-acceptor-substituted spirobifluorene compounds (red 2-diphenylamino-7-(2,2-dicyanovinyl)-9,9′-spirobifluorene and blue 2-diphenylamino-7-(2,2-diphenylvinyl)-9,9′-spirobifluorene) have been fabricated. The optimized WOLEDs shows a maximum current efficiency 5.9 cd/A and very low efficiency roll-off. From the brightness at maximum current efficiency to high brightness of 10000 cd/m², the current efficiency roll-off is only 0.4%. It can be attributed to the ambipolar blue fluorescent emitter with voltage-independnet mobility which makes the device having a broader charge recombination zone and balance of carrier transport.     

An ethylcarbazole based phosphine oxide derivative as a host for deep blue phosphorescent organic light-emitting diode

Deep blue phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (PHOLEDs) were developed using a 9-ethylcarbazole based phosphine oxide material (EPO1). A high triplet energy of 3.01 eV was obtained from the EPO1 host material and efficient energy transfer from the host to the deep blue emitting phosphorescent dopant was observed. A high quantum efficiency of 7.9% with a color coordinate of (0.15, 0.17) was achieved in the deep blue PHOLED using the EPO1 host material.