Abstract: | Liquid crystalline materials display unique properties which can be exploited in organic light-emitting diodes. Characteristic features of liquid crystals are the anisotropy of electronic properties, a strong coupling to external fields as well as a tendency to form spontaneously homogeneous monodomain films. It is found that liquid crystalline materials can be used in light-emitting diodes to control the state of polarization of the emitted light, the magnitude of the onset field for emission as well as the quantum efficiency. Both low molar mass and polymeric liquid crystals have been introduced with great success in single as well as in multilayer devices. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |