Combined optical simulation of the ray-tracing technique and the finite difference time domain method was used to investigate the effect of the emitter orientation and the photonic crystal layer on the outcoupling efficiency (OCE) of bottom-emission type organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). The OLED with a horizontal emitter exhibited an opposite interference effect to that of one with a vertical emitter, which suggested that the OCE would be very sensitive to the emitter orientation at a fixed emitter-cathode distance. The OLED with a horizontal emitter exhibited much larger OCE than that with a vertical emitter did, which was due to the substantial difference in the radiation pattern along with the different coupling with the surface plasmon excitation. The OCE with a horizontal emitter was increased by approximately 1.3 times by inserting a photonic crystal layer between the indium tin oxide layer and the glass substrate. The present study suggested that appropriate control of the emitter orientation and its combination to other outcoupling structures could be used to enhance the OCE of OLEDs substantially.
The net effect of the emitter orientation, Mie scatters, and pillow lenses on the outcoupling efficiency (OCE) of a bottomemitting OLED having an internal photonic crystal layer was investigated by a combined optical simulation based on the finite-difference time-domain method (FDTD) and the ray-tracing technique. The simulation showed that when the emitter orientation was horizontal with respect to the OLED surface, the OCE could be increased by 54% when a photonic crystal layer was employed, while it could be improved by 86% under optimized conditions of Mie scatters and pillow lenses applied to the glass substrate. The peculiar intensity distribution of the OLED, caused by the periodic lattice structure of the photonic crystal layer, could be ameliorated by inserting Mie scatters into the glass substrate. This study suggests that conventional outcoupling structures combined with control of the emitter orientation could improve the OCE substantially.
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