White organic light-emitting diodes combining vacuum deposited blue electrophosphorescent devices with red surface color conversion layers

Guided mode caused by silicon nanopillar array for light emission enhancement in color-converting LED

Plasmonic metallic nanostructures have been demonstrated an effective way to enhance the light emission efficiency in LEDs. Here, we propose a design of white LEDs that combining dielectric silicon nanopillar array in the color-converting layer. By investigating theoretically the guided mode caused by the nanopillar array-waveguide system, we demonstrate that the silicon nanopillar arrays enable larger near-field enhancement and more efficient photons emission property than the plasmonic counterparts. These performances make the silicon nanopillar arrays have potential application in light converter for efficient white LEDs. We also show that the guided mode can be controlled by changing the period of nanopillar grating and the thickness of polymer layer. More significant performance can be achieved by further optimizing the shape and size of the silicon nanoparticles. Compared with the square nanoparticle arrays, the hexagonal nanopillar arrays are demonstrated to have larger field enhancement and emission enhancement. Our research is expected to give insights into the design and optimization of the solid-state lighting systems by using silicon nanostructures, and the all-dielectric metamaterials for gaining or lasing devices.

Improve efficiency of white organic light-emitting diodes by using nanosphere arrays in color conversion layers

The authors demonstrated an efficient color conversion layer (CCL) by using nanosphere arrays in down-converted white organic light-emitting diodes (WOLEDs). The introduced periodical nanospheres not only helped extract the confined light in devices, but also increased the effective light path to achieve high-efficiency color conversion. By applying a CCL with red phosphor on a 400-nm-period nanosphere array, we achieved 137% color conversion ratio for blue OLEDs, which was 2.68 times higher than conventional flat CCL. The resulting luminous efficiency of WOLEDs with patterned CCLs (20.97 cd/A, 1000 cd/m2) was two times higher than the efficiency of the flat device (10.26 cd/A, 1000 cd/m2).

Recent progresses on materials for electrophosphorescent organic light-emitting devices

Although organic light-emitting devices have been commercialized as flat panel displays since 1997, only singlet excitons were emitted. Full use of singlet and triplet excitons, electrophosphorescence, has attracted increasing attentions after the premier work made by Forrest, Thompson, and co-workers. In fact, red electrophosphorescent dye has already been used in sub-display of commercial mobile phones since 2003. Highly efficient green phosphorescent dye is now undergoing of commercialization. Very recently, blue phosphorescence approaching the theoretical efficiency has also been achieved, which may overcome the final obstacle against the commercialization of full color display and white light sources from phosphorescent materials. Combining light out-coupling structures with highly efficient phosphors (shown in the table-of-contents image), white emission with an efficiency matching that of fluorescent tubes (90 lm/W) has now been realized. It is possible to tune the color to the true white region by changing to a deep blue emitter and corresponding wide gap host and transporting material for the blue phosphor. In this article, recent progresses in red, green, blue, and white electrophosphorescent materials for OLEDs are reviewed, with special emphasis on blue electrophosphorescent materials.

White organic light-emitting diodes

White organic light-emitting diodes (WOLEDs) offer a range of attractive characteristics and are in several regards conceptually different from most currently used light sources. From an application perspective, their advantages include a high power efficiency that rivals the performance of fluorescent lamps and inorganic LEDs and the potential for a very low cost of manufacturing. As flat-panel light sources they are intrinsically glare-free and generate light over a large area. WOLEDs are constantly improving in terms of performance, durability, and manufacturability, but these improvements require joint research efforts in chemistry and the materials sciences to design better materials as well as in physics and engineering to invent new device concepts and design suitable fabrication schemes, a process that has generated many exciting scientific questions and answers. This article reviews current developments in the field of WOLEDs and puts a special focus on new device concepts and on approaches to reliable and cost-efficient WOLED manufacturing.