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Highly efficient phosphorescent emission from organic electroluminescent devices

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Abstract

The efficiency of electroluminescent organic light-emitting devices1,2 can be improved by the introduction3 of a fluorescent dye. Energy transfer from the host to the dye occurs via excitons, but only the singlet spin states induce fluorescent emission; these represent a small fraction (about 25%) of the total excited-state population (the remainder are triplet states). Phosphorescent dyes, however, offer a means of achieving improved light-emission efficiencies, as emission may result from both singlet and triplet states. Here we report high-efficiency (≳90%) energy transfer from both singlet and triplet states, in a host material doped with the phosphorescent dye 2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18-octaethyl-21H,23H-porphine platinum(II) (PtOEP). Our doped electroluminescent devices generate saturated red emission with peak external and internal quantum efficiencies of 4% and 23%, respectively. The luminescent efficiencies attainable with phosphorescent dyes may lead to new applications for organic materials. Moreover, our work establishes the utility of PtOEP as a probe of triplet behaviour and energy transfer in organic solid-state systems.

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Figure 1: Spectra of the organic LEDs with different molar concentrations of PtOEP at different current densities.
Figure 2: Lifetime and quantum efficiency of PtOEP emission.
Figure 3: Two electroluminescent devices demonstrating that Alq3 triplets are transferred to PtOEP.

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Acknowledgements

We thank V. G. Kozlov for help with the transient measurements, and P. E. Burrows for discussions. This work was supported by Universal Display Corporation, DARPA, AFPSR and NSF.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering and the Princeton Materials Institute, Center for Photonics and Optoelectronic Materials, Princeton University, Princeton, 08544, New Jersey, USA

    M. A. Baldo, D. F. O'Brien & S. R. Forrest

  2. Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 90089, California, USA

    Y. You, A. Shoustikov, S. Sibley & M. E. Thompson

  3. Department of Chemistry, Goucher College, Baltimore, 21204-2794, Maryland, USA

    S. Sibley

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  1. M. A. Baldo
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  2. D. F. O'Brien
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  3. Y. You
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  4. A. Shoustikov
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  5. S. Sibley
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  6. M. E. Thompson
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  7. S. R. Forrest
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Baldo, M., O'Brien, D., You, Y. et al. Highly efficient phosphorescent emission from organic electroluminescent devices. Nature 395, 151–154 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/25954

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