A randomly nano-structured scattering layer for transparent organic light emitting diodes

Enhanced light extraction efficiency and viewing angle characteristics of microcavity OLEDs by using a diffusion layer

The viewing angle characteristics and light extraction efficiency of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with a micro-cavity structure were enhanced. This was accomplished by inserting a diffusion layer composed of nano-sized structures of a transparent polymer poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) combined with a zinc oxide (ZnO) semi-planarization layer with a high refractive index (n = 2.1) into the devices. The PMMA nanostructures were fabricated by employing a reactive ion etching (RIE) process. The height and density of the PMMA nanostructures were controlled by varying the speed at which the PMMA was spin-coated onto the substrate. The insertion of the diffusion layer into the micro-cavity OLEDs (MC-OLEDs) improved the external quantum efficiency (EQE) by as much as 17% when compared to that of a MC-OLED without a diffusion layer. Furthermore, adjustment of the viewing angle from 0° to 60° halved the peak shift distance of the electroluminescence (EL) spectra from 42 to 20 nm. Additionally, changing the viewing angle from 0° to 60° changed the color coordinate movement distance of the MC-OLED with the diffusion layer to 0.078, less than half of the distance of the MC-OLED without the diffusion layer (0.165).

Transparent organic light-emitting diodes with balanced white emission by minimizing waveguide and surface plasmonic loss

It is challenging in realizing high-performance transparent organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with symmetrical light emission to both sides. Herein, an efficient transparent OLED with highly balanced white emission to both sides is demonstrated by integrating quasi-periodic nanostructures into the organic emitter and the metal-dielectric composite top electrode, which can simultaneously suppressing waveguide and surface plasmonic loss. The power efficiency and external quantum efficiency are raised to 83.5 lm W^-1 and 38.8%, respectively, along with a bi-directional luminance ratio of 1.26. The proposed scheme provides a facile route for extending application scope of transparent OLEDs for future transparent displays and lightings.

Spontaneously Embedded Scattering Structures in a Flexible Substrate for Light Extraction

A flexible hazy substrate (FHS) with embedded air bubbles to increase light extraction efficiency of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) is reported. In order to embed the air bubbles in the flexible substrate, micropatterned substrates are fabricated by plasma treatment, and then coated with a planarization layer. During the planarization layer coating, air bubbles are trapped between the substrate and the planarization layer. The haze of the FHS can be controlled from 1.7% to 68.4% by changing the size of micropatterns by adjusting the plasma treatment time. The FHS shows average haze of 68.4%, average total transmittance of 90.3%, and extremely flat surface with average roughness (R _a ) of 1.2 nm. Rigorous coupled-wave analysis and finite-difference time-domain simulations are conducted to demonstrate that the air bubbles in the substrate can effectively extract photons that are trapped in the substrate. The FHS increases the power efficiency of OLEDs by 22% and further increases by 91% combined with an external extraction layer. Moreover, the FHS has excellent mechanical flexibility. No defect has been observed after 10 000 bending cycles at bending radius of 4 mm.

Crystallization-assisted nano-lens array fabrication for highly efficient and color stable organic light emitting diodes

To date, all deposition equipment has been developed to produce planar films. Thus lens arrays with a lens diameter of <1 mm have been manufactured by combining deposition with other technologies, such as masks, surface treatment, molding etc. Furthermore, a nano-lens array (NLA) with a sufficiently small lens diameter (<1 μm) is necessary to avoid image quality degradation in high resolution displays. In this study, an organic NLA made using a conventional deposition technique - without combining with other techniques - is reported. Very interestingly, grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GI-SAXS) experiments indicate that the NLA is formed by the crystallization of organic molecules and the resulting increase in surface tension. The lens diameter can be tuned for use with any kind of light by controlling the process parameters. As an example of their potential applications, we use NLAs as a light extraction film for organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). The NLA is integrated by directly depositing it on the top electrode of a collection of OLEDs. This is a dry process, meaning that it is fully compatible with the current OLED production process. Devices with NLAs exhibited a light extraction efficiency 1.5 times higher than devices without, which corresponds well with simulation results. The simulations show that this high efficiency is due to the reduction of the guided modes by scattering at the NLA. The NLAs also reduce image blurring, indicating that they increase color stability.

Ultrathin and ultrasmooth Au films as transparent electrodes in ITO-free organic light-emitting devices

An ultrathin, ultrasmooth and flexible Au film as an alternative of the indium-tin oxide (ITO) electrode in organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) has been reported. The 7 nm Au film shows excellent surface morphology, optical and electronic characteristics including a root-mean-square roughness of 0.35 nm, a high transparency of 72% at 550 nm, and a sheet resistance of 23.75 Ω sq(-1). These features arise from the surface modification of the glass substrate by using a SU-8 film, which fixes metal atoms via chemical bond interactions between Au and SU-8 film to suppress the island growth mode. A 17% enhancement in current efficiency has been obtained from the OLEDs based on the ultrathin Au electrodes compared to that of the devices with the ITO electrodes. The OLEDs with the ultrathin Au/SU-8 anodes exhibit high flexibility and mechanical robustness.

An extremely low-index photonic crystal layer for enhanced light extraction from organic light-emitting diodes

This paper reports organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with improved light extraction fabricated by embedding an extremely low-index photonic crystal (LIPC) layer. The LIPC layer increases the optical efficiency through the reduced wave-guide mode between the substrate and anode both by increased light resonance and by a strengthened diffraction effect from an extremely low-refractive-index medium, specifically a line structure composed of a vacuum gap. As a result, the current efficiency and power efficiency of the LIPC-OLEDs are 1.51 and 1.93 times higher, respectively, than the reference device at 1000 cd m(-2). Because most of the light extraction is significant, especially in the forward direction, at the specific wavelengths satisfying the Bragg's diffraction equation, it is possible to calculate the anomalous spectrum of the LIPC-OLED through the finite-difference time domain (FDTD) method.

Simultaneously enhanced device efficiency, stabilized chromaticity of organic light emitting diodes with lambertian emission characteristic by random convex lenses

An optical functional film applicable to various lighting devices is demonstrated in this study. The phase separation of two immiscible polymers in a common solvent was used to fabricate the film. In this paper, a self-organized lens-like structure is realized in this manner with optical OLED functional film. For an OLED, there are a few optical drawbacks, including light confinement or viewing angle distortion. By applying the optical film to an OLED, the angular spectra distortion resulting from the designed organic stack which produced the highest efficiency was successfully stabilized, simultaneously enhancing the efficiency of the OLED. We prove the effect of the film on the efficiency of OLEDs through an optical simulation. With the capability to overcome the main drawbacks of OLEDs, we contend that the proposed film can be applied to various lighting devices.

Towards highly efficient and highly transparent OLEDs: advanced considerations for emission zone coupled with capping layer design

Strategies to achieve efficient transparent organic light-emitting diodes (TrOLEDs) are presented. The emission zone position is carefully adjusted by monitoring the optical phase change upon reflection from the top electrode, which is significant when the thickness of the capping layer changes. With the proposed design strategy, external quantum efficiency and transmittance values as high as 15% and 80% are demonstrated simultaneously. The effect of surface plasmon polariton (SPP) loss from thin metal electrodes is also taken into account to correctly describe the full scaling behavior of the efficiency of TrOLEDs over key optical design parameters.