Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have gained considerable attention because of their use of inherently flexible materials and their compatibility with facile roll-to-roll and printing processes. In addition to high efficiency, flexibility and transparency, reliable color tunability of solid state light sources is a desirable feature in the lighting and display industry. Here, we demonstrate a device concept for highly efficient organic light-emitting devices whose emission color can be easily adjusted from deep-blue through cold-white and warm-white to saturated yellow. Our approach exploits the different polarities of the positive and negative half-cycles of an alternating current (AC) driving signal to independently address a fluorescent blue emission unit and a phosphorescent yellow emission unit which are vertically stacked on top of each other. The electrode design is optimized for simple fabrication and driving and allows for two-terminal operation by a single source. The presented concept for color-tunable OLEDs is compatible with application requirements and versatile in terms of emitter combinations. INTRODUCTIONIn recent years, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have evolved into a mature technology and OLEDs are now used in various display applications. OLEDs provide an internal charge-to-photon conversion efficiency of nearly 100% and deliver homogeneous emission over large areas, making them promising candidates for new and innovative lighting applications. 1 White OLEDs, in particular, offer great potential for energy-efficient general illumination: luminous efficacies of more than 90 lm W 21 , comparable to the best fluorescent tubes, have already been reported. 2,3 Furthermore, OLED-based light sources can be made mechanically flexible and transparent, offering new opportunities for architecture, visual art and decoration. 4 The reliable realtime tunability of the OLED emission color would impart further momentum to OLED technology on its way to becoming a widespread source of general illumination. Thus far, two different color-tuning concepts have prevailed in the literature. One exploits voltagedependent changes in emission color and was demonstrated as early as 1994 for OLEDs fabricated from polymer blends. 5 Voltage-dependent color shifts are the result of a variety of mechanisms, e.g., voltagedependent charge trapping, a spatial shift of the recombination zone, a modified exciton distribution, or exciton quenching at high current densities. [5][6][7] However, this approach has several drawbacks: not only are the mechanisms that lead to voltage-dependent color-shifts difficult to control, but adjusting the driving voltage also unavoidably results in a dramatic and undesired change in device brightness. The second concept overcomes the disadvantages of the voltage-controlled approach by using a stacked tandem OLED structure with two (or more) independently addressable units emitting light of different colors. 8,9 In comparison with the first method, this approach provides
A novel approach for alternating current (AC)‐driven organic light‐emitting devices is reported, which uses the concept of molecular doping in organic semiconductors. Doped organic charge‐transport layers are used to generate charge carriers within the device, hence eliminating the need for injecting charge carriers from external electrodes. Bright luminance of up to 1000 cd m−2 is observed when the device is driven with an AC bias. The luminance observed is attributed to charge‐carrier generation and recombination, leading to the formation of excitons within the device, without injection of charge carriers through external electrodes. A mechanism for internal charge‐carrier generation and the device operation is proposed.
An ultra‐thin MoO3–Au–Ag wetting layer metal electrode is investigated to eliminate present optical and electrical limitations of inverted top‐emitting OLEDs. Its high transmittance suppresses microcavity effects and the MoO3 hole injection layer compensates limited charge injection from the top contact. Overall, an extensive approach is presented to solve the key problems of top‐emitting OLEDs in general.
In recent years, the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology has been a rapidly evolving field of research, successfully making the transition to commercial applications such as mobile phones and other small portable devices. OLEDs provide efficient generation of light, excellent color quality, and allow for innovative display designs, e.g., curved shapes, mechanically flexible and/or transparent devices. Especially their self emissive nature is a highly desirable feature for display applications. In this work, we demonstrate an approach for full-color OLED pixels that are fabricated by vertical stacking of a red-, green-, and blue-emitting unit. Each unit can be addressed separately which allows for efficient generation of every color that is accessible by superpositioning the spectra of the individual emission units. Here, we use a combination of time division multiplexing and pulse width modulation to achieve efficient color mixing. The presented device design requires only three independently addressable electrodes, simplifying both fabrication and electrical driving. The device is built in a top-emission geometry, which is highly desirable for display fabrication as the pixel can be directly deposited onto back-plane electronics. Despite the top-emission design and the application of three silver layers within the device, there is only a minor color shift even for large viewing angles. The color space spanned by the three emission sub-units exceeds the sRGB space, providing more saturated green/yellow/red colors. Furthermore, the electrical performance of each individual unit is on par with standard single emission unit OLEDs, showing very low leakage currents and achieving brightness levels above 1000 cd/m2 at moderate voltages of around 3–4 V.
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