Materials 4 n03 ssl

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Materials 4N03: Final Project
Solid State Lighting
Materials 4N03 Final Project
Submitted by: Jeffery Clare, Catherine Pereira, Heather Smith & Mitch Tuckey
December 06, 2011.

Materials 4N03: Final Project -2- Clare, Pereira, Smith & Tuckey
12/06/2011
Table of Contents
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................3
How does Semiconductor LED Technology Work?.......................................................................................4
Creation of Semiconductor LEDs ..............................................................................................................6
LED Material Issues and Solutions ................................................................................................................7
Organic Light Emitting Diodes.......................................................................................................................9
How does OLED Technology Work?..........................................................................................................9
Types of OLEDs........................................................................................................................................10
OLED Material Issues and Solutions............................................................................................................10
SMOLEDs.................................................................................................................................................11
PLED ........................................................................................................................................................12
Common Host Polymers for PLEDs .....................................................................................................12
Common Polymers Utilized in PLEDs..................................................................................................12
Phosphorescent Materials......................................................................................................................13
Conclusions .................................................................................................................................................14
References ..................................................................................................................................................15

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Introduction
Solid state lighting, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have
the potential to be a significantly more efficient and effective method of lighting our homes and
buildings. The current efficiency of LED and OLED bulbs are significantly greater than that of
incandescent and compact fluorescent lamps, however it can be improved further and there are several
materials issues with the technology, currently preventing it from gaining widespread popularity.
Wide spread use of LEDs in lighting applications has numerous benefits which can help to
address the energy crisis by consuming less electricity in everyday lighting uses. Table 1 below clearly
shows that LED light bulbs last five times longer than compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL) and forty-two
times longer than incandescent light bulbs. The electricity consumed over the lifespan of a single LED
bulb (over 50,000 hours of use), is ten times less than the electricity consumed by an incandescent light
bulb and is two and a third times less than the electricity consumed by a CFL. [1] By switching to LED
light bulbs, society will experience an overall reduction in energy consumption resulting in a decrease in
electricity costs. From a consumer’s point of view, this is very attractive. However, the initial cost of an
LED light bulb is quite high and this is something which must be reduced in order for this form of lighting
to further gain wide-spread use.
On a larger scale, in 2001 the total annual energy consumption in the United States was
approximately 9 200 terawatt-hours (TWh). Thirty-eight percent of the energy was consumed as
electricity and of that twenty-two percent was consumed by lighting. This means that in the United
States in 2001 over eight percent of total energy consumption was due to lighting which is
approximately 765 TWh or electricity. It is also estimated that worldwide, in 2005 grid-based electric
lighting was responsible for about nineteen percent of global electricity consumption. [2] This is clearly
a significant percentage and addressing the need for more efficient lighting sources can greatly help
decrease our global demand for electricity.
Table 1: Comparison of LED lamps, compact fluorescent bulbs, and incandescent light bulbs in terms of lifespan, electricity
consumption and cost. [1]
LED CFL Incandescent
Lifespan (hours) 50 000 10 000 1200
Cost per bulb $35.95 $3.95 $1.25
KWh used over 50 000 hours 300 700 3000
Cost of electricity(@ $0.09/KWh)* $27 $63 $270
Total cost for 50k hours $62.95 $82.75 $322.50
KWh per household** 7500 17 500 75 000
Cost per household** $675 $1575 $6750
Savings by switching from incandescent**
$6075 $5175 $0
67 500 KWh 57 500 KWh 0 KWh
*Electricity cost based on an average of current Horizon Utilities smart meter pricing. **Household electricity use and savings
based on an assumed 25 light bulbs per house switched from incandescent bulbs.

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How does Semiconductor LED Technology Work?
A semiconductor light-emitting diode (LED) is essentially a semiconductor p-n junction. The p-
type semiconductor is doped to have excess amounts of holes and the n-type is doped to have excess
electrons. When a current is applied to the semiconductor, the excess holes from the p-type
semiconductor and the excess electrons n-type semiconductor will travel towards the p-n junction
where they recombine. This electron-hole recombination releases a photon thereby producing
electroluminescence, as shown in Figure 1. [3]
Figure 1: Diagram of a basic semiconductor LED.
The energy released in this process is described by the equation, , where λ is the wavelength of
the emitted light, h is Planck’s constant, c is the speed of light, and Eg is the band gap energy of the
material. Since the electroluminescence effect generates a specific wavelength of light, the emission
from an LED is very narrow compared to incandescent lighting, which emit light well into the UV
spectrum.[3]
A common LED device can be seen in Figure 2, but the size and shape of LEDs is widely varied.
The anode and cathode carry the electrons and holes, respectively, to the semiconductor chip. The
semiconductor chip is located on top of the cathode, as shown in Figure 2, but can be place on top of
the anode. The semiconductor location depends on whether the substrate is p-type or n-type. The
semiconductor chip is inside of a cone of reflective material. The semiconductor will emit light out of
any surface, to maximize the amount of light that is directed forward the reflective cone is place around
the semiconductor. Attaching from the anode to the top of the semiconductor in Figure 2 is a
conduction wire. This wire is made very small to reduce the amount of shadowing, thereby increasing
the amount of light emitted by the LED. A protective epoxy coating is applied surrounding the LED
components. Epoxy has a high fracture toughness which makes it ideal material to utilize as a protective
coating. This is why LEDs are more durable compared to glass incandescent bulbs, which are known to
scatter easily.

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Figure 2: Common LED device. [4]
Many applications use coloured LEDs as indicators, but for house hold lighting white light is
preferred. The human eye can detect light in the 400-800nm range; it is within this range that white
light emission is needed for lighting applications.[5] RGB and phosphor coatings are the two
predominant methods of achieving white light emission in modern semiconductor LEDs.
The most common method is the RGB (Red, Green and Blue) method. These three colour LEDs
emitting three corresponding wavelengths and are mixed via an optical mixer to produce a broad
spectrum white light, as shown in Figure 3.[6]
Figure 3: The broad spectrum emission obtained from red, green, and blue LEDs. [6]

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Phosphor coatings are another method for obtaining white light emission. The phosphor
coating is applied to the semiconductor chip inside the epoxy, such that the photon released after
electron-hole recombination will pass through the phosphor coating which converts it to visible light.
The most common types of phosphor coated LEDs emit in the blue-UV range. Commonly, GaN LED
devices are used in conjunction with yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) phosphors. The YAG phosphor
emits yellow after absorbing blue from the GaN. The combination of the yellow and blue can create a
white light emission.[7] The different wavelengths and their corresponding electroluminescence (EL)
intensities are shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: The broad spectrum obtained from the combination of GaN in conjunction with YAG phosphor. [7]
Both the RGB and phosphor coating methods are able to produce white light emissions.
Unfortunately, both methods experience a quality issue with respect the white light emitted. As can be
seen in Figure 3 and Figure 4, there is an EL distribution of white light produced. This variation causes a
quality issue with the white light emitted by the LEDs.
Creation of Semiconductor LEDs
Semiconductor LEDs are created by epitaxial growth. There are four major method of
conducting epitaxial growth, liquid phase epitaxy, vapour phase epitaxy, metalorganic vapour phase
epitaxy, and molecular beam epitaxy. Liquid phase epitaxy uses a solution saturated with the desired
compound that is to be grown. The substrate is placed in contact with the solution and cooled. As the
solution cools the compound will grow on the substrate. This method is the simplest of the epitaxy
methods. The disadvantage is the controlling the composition is difficult and growing multiple layers is
difficult. Vapour phase epitaxy uses gaseous form reactants of the compounds desired in the layers.
The gases are added to a quartz chamber with the substrate. This method is very easy to conduct at
large scale. The composition of the growth layers and thickness can be controlled easily. The
disadvantage of this process that aluminum compounds cannot be used. Aluminum will degrade the
chamber and not deposit onto the substrate. Metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy is similar to vapour
phase epitaxy, but uses metal organic gasses. The substrate is heated and the metalorganics
decompose on the surface of the substrate and deposit the layers. Unlike vapour phase epitaxy metal

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organic vapour phase epitaxy is able to deposit aluminum on the substrate. Molecular beam epitaxy
uses a vacuum chamber to evaporate compounds and deposits them onto the substrate. This method is
very slow and expensive, but is able to create very thin layers with high precision of composition.[4]
LED Material Issues and Solutions
There are three characteristics of white light: the Commission Internationale d’Eclairage (CIE)
coordinates or chromaticity, the colour temperature (CT) and the colour rendering index (CRI). Figure 5
below shows the (x,y) plot of the CIE chromaticity and as can be seen, the coordinates for the white
point on this chart are defined as (0.33, 0.33). Generally the desired coordinates for ambient light lie on
the black body curve with colour temperatures between 3000-10,000 K. [8]
Figure 5: CIE (x,y) chromaticity diagram. All the colours in the visible spectrum lie within or on the boundary of this diagram
The internal arc is the Planckian locus, which is the plot of the coordinates of black body radiation at the temperatures
shown described as colour-correlated temperatures.[8]
There are currently three methods for producing white light using LEDs: multi-chip LEDs, blue
LEDs combined with one or more phosphors, and UV LEDs combined with multiple phosphors. It is
thought that the most efficient white LEDs will be produced through the mixing of multiple different
coloured LEDs in the same packaging however this method does present some challenges currently.[9]
Red, blue and green LED need to be combined together so that the colour mixing produces a white light.
One of the main problems with this is that green LEDs are significantly less efficient than red or blue
LEDs; this means the efficiency of the overall bulb would be limited by the efficiency of the green LED. A
second problem with this method is that the three different coloured LEDs change efficiency over time
at different rates.[2]

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In the second method of white light production a blue LED is used with a phosphor which
absorbs some of the blue light and fluoresces yellow. The combination of the remaining blue light and
the yellow light from the phosphor creates a white light. The main problem with this technique is
getting proper colour mixing; there is often an issue of different coloured light depending on the angle
one views the LED from.[9]
The major issue with the third method, UV LEDs and multiple phosphors is the reduced
efficiency. This is because you are absorbing a UV photon and reemitting a lower energy visible photon.
Another problem associated with this is that the high flux of UV radiation can cause serious degradation
of packaging and phosphor material.[9] In this case improvements and innovations in phosphor and
packaging materials which can withstand the UV radiation must be made in order for this form of white
LED to be used wide scale.
Figure 6: Internal quantum efficiency versus wavelength. The crosses plotted represent the highest IQE values found in
literature and the triangles are the highest IQE from results on Cambridge grown structures tested at Manchester[7].
The best white LEDs currently have an efficiency of about 30% and efficacy of 100 lm/W. Table
2 shows the efficiencies of various forms of light. The factors affecting the efficiency of GaN LEDs are
not well understood. The internal quantum efficiency versus wavelength for LEDs, is shown in Error!
Reference source not found.. The theoretical basis for this curve is not understood. In order to further
improve the efficiencies of these types of LEDs a better understanding of this curve. While it is clear
that LED lamps are more efficient than traditional incandescent and fluorescent light sources this comes
at a financial cost which is preventing them from being widely used in commercial and household
applications.[2]
Table 2: Efficiencies and Efficacies of various forms of commercially available lighting in 2007[2].
Type of Light Source Efficiency (%) Efficacy (lm/W)
Incandescent light bulb 5 15
Long flourescent tube 25 80
Compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) 20 60
High power white LEDs 30 100
Low power white LEDs 50 150
Sodium lamp (high pressure) 45 130

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White LEDs (10 year target) 60 200
One of the major reasons that LED lighting has not obtained wide-scale usage is due to cost.[2]
While the lifetime cost of LED bulbs is significantly less than incandescent and CFL bulbs (as seen in
Table 1 above), the initial investment in the bulb is quite high.[1] This cost is continually declining as
improvements to the processing methods of white LEDs are made. This will make LED a more financially
viable option in the future. One way of doing this is by growing the GaN LED on larger wafers made of
different materials. Currently, these LEDs are grown on two inch diameter sapphire or SiC substrates, if
this diameter is increased to four or even six inch wafers significantly more LEDs can be acquired per
wafer. In addition, growing LEDs on Si wafers have lower manufacturing costs than growing LEDs on
sapphire or SiC wafers.
Organic Light Emitting Diodes
Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) are part of an emerging lighting technology that is
currently area of growing interest. OLEDs can be utilized to produce lighting panels, where light is
produced evenly over an area of a panel rather than from a point source such as a light bulb. This
particular application promises to significantly decrease the electricity usage of household lighting while
producing evenly distributed light from flexible panels up to 1mm in thickness.[10] OLED lighting panels
could also decrease our reliance on other efficient lighting technologies such as compact fluorescents,
which contain high amounts of the hazardous heavy metal mercury. Many creative and ingenious
applications of OLED lighting panels have been purposed including OLED wallpaper and OLED window
coverings.
How does OLED Technology Work?
OLEDs operate very similarly to LEDs. Essentially, a voltage is applied to a sandwich structure of
semiconductor materials and as electrons are excited and eventually return to their ground state a
photon is emitted to produce light.[10] OLEDs differ from LEDs in the fact that organic compounds are
utilized as the semiconductors in the sandwich structure to produce photons. The organic compounds
used in OLEDs can replace the reliance on rare and expensive semiconductor materials found in LEDs.
OLEDs consist of a sandwich structure of six main components: the cathode, electron transport
layer, emissive layer, hole injection layer, anode and a glass substrate. As a voltage of about 2 to 10 volts
is applied to the cathode and anode a build-up of electrons occurs at the electron transport layer and a
build-up of electron-holes occurs at the hole injection layer.[11] This electron-hole gradient occurs due
to electrons that are constantly being added at the cathode and removed at the anode. As the anode
removes the electrons an electron hole is left behind. In order to be filled by an electron, the holes move
to the emissive layer where they recombine with an electron. When this recombination occurs, the
electron will return to the lower energy state of the atom that is missing an electron. The excess energy
of the electron will then be emitted as a photon and in turn produce light.[12]
When manufacturing an OLED, a substrate is used as a base to build all other thin film layers of
the OLED on top of. The substrate usually consists of glass or plastic, as it must be transparent for light

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to be emitted and durable because the substrate will act as the outer surface and must protect the inner
components of the OLED. The next layer to be applied to the substrate is the anode. The anode is
usually made out of indium tin oxide due to its high electrical conductivity and transparency. This allows
the anode to easily emit photons produced within the cell and act as the anode by conducting
electricity. The next layers of the OLED cell include the organic layers. The organic compounds used in
these layers vary by the type of OLED being produced. The first type of OLED that was produced utilized
small organic molecules for the organic layers (SMOLED). This OLED structure utilized copper
phthalocyanine as the hole injection layer, doped Alq3 (Tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum) as the
emissive layer and Alq3 as the electron transport layer.[11] The final thin film to be applied is the
cathode layer. This layer does not need to be transparent because it is the back of the OLED but needs
to efficiently conduct electricity to act as an electrode. Calcium and aluminum alloys have commonly
been used as the cathode. Calcium however, has been found to produce photons from an OLED cell
more efficiently due to its lower work function, meaning less energy will be required to inject an
electron from the cathode into the organic material.[13]
Types of OLEDs
There are three main types of organic molecules that can be used in OLEDs; SMOLEDs, polymer
LEDs (PLEDs) and phosphorescent materials. The first consists of small organic molecules such as Alq3.
The second type consists of polymer molecules, which are long chains of organic molecules linked
together. PLEDs are currently being heavily researched and will likely enter the consumer market in the
near future. PLEDs significantly decreased the cost of manufacturing due to the fact that polymers can
be printed on a substrate using a process similar to inkjet printers as opposed to the expensive method
of vacuum depositing thin films on a substrate.[14]These two types of organic materials have a
maximum theoretical efficiency of 25% due to the fact that only singlet electrons are allowed to decay
and emit photons. Phosphorescent organic materials can be utilized to increase the maximum
theoretical efficiency to 100% due to the fact that they allow for the decay of both singlet and triplet
electrons to produce photons.[12] Research into phosphorescent materials is ongoing and many
technological hurdles must be overcome including the relatively short lifespan of phosphorescent
organics.[15]
The wavelength and colour produced from emitted photons depends on the organic material
used. Alq3 is widely used in SMOLEDs to produce green light. Alq3 is often dyed with fluorescent organic
compounds in order to produce light of other wavelengths. For production of PLEDs, the polyaniline has
been used for the conducting layer and polyfluorene for the emissive layer. Different side chains added
to the polymer affect the wavelength of light emitted from these polymers.[15] Research is currently
being performed to use doped organometallic compounds for phosphorescent LEDs (PHLEDs).
OLED Material Issues and Solutions
The following sections will explore various widely used materials for SMOLEDs, PLEDs and
phosphorescent materials.

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SMOLEDs
There are two types of SMOLEDs; those that use fluorescent material and those that use
phosphorescent material. [16]Fluorescent material produces singlet excitons while phosphorescent
material produces triplet excitons. One of the major differences between the two is quantum
efficiencies. The SMOLDs that use fluorescent material are ‘…limited by spin statistics to only ~25%
[meanwhile] the recently developed phosphorescent SMOLEDs...[can] achieve[] quautum efficiencies
approaching 100%.’[16]
The most commonly used ‘fluorescent blue host materials are anthracene and distyryl-based
compounds…These materials have good phase-compatibility with their guest blue emitters, which in
turn also belong to the anthracene, distyryl amine compounds, perylene, and fluorine derivatives. These
materials have large band gaps and are thermally stable with high Tg,[16] (glass transition temperature)
which will preventing changes in material properties from occurring during device operation, that would
occur as the operating temperature approaches Tg. ‘Solution-processible polymers with large band gaps
and relatively high triplet energies may also be suitable for use as host materials. Examples of these
include polyalkylfluorene…polyvinylene…and rigid polycarbazoles.’[16]
There are a wide range of dopants that can be used for SMOLEDs. Each of these must be highly
fluorescent, match the highest occupied and lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals, have fast energy
transfer processes and be phase compatible with the host materials.If the dopant is phosphorescent,
then its triplet energy level normally should be lower than that of the host; [16] the reasoning for which
is explained later during the discussion of phosphorescent materials.
The simplest SMOLED structure for producing white emission colour consists of three primary
emission colours (blue, green and red) with the structure ITO/TPD/p-EtTAZ/Alq3/Alq3:Nile
Red/Alq3/Mg:Ag, in which the TPD layer produces a blue emission, the Alq3 layer produces a green
emission , and a red emission is produced from the Nile red dye.The white emission of this device is
‘sensitive to the operating voltage and device structure parameters such as active layer thickness and
doping concentration.’[16]In addition, the device fabrication process is tedious since ‘today’s devices
have a total of 7-9 layers, some of which are deposited by different techniques. Some of these
techniques require humidity- and oxygen-free conditions, which contributes to the OLEDs’ high
manufacturing costs.’ Although these costs can be decreased by reducing the number of layers in a
device, improving and/or developing new manufacturing processes which is the focus of much research
at this time. [17]
The main issue with using devices with the three primary emission colours is that the colours
degrade at different rate overtime. This leads to a decrease brightness and colour rendering abilities in
the SMOLED. The degradation mechanisms are relatively unstudied. Recent research has found other
SMOLED devices that can be utilized to obtain white light that avoids this type of degradation.
Very recently, a white emitting diode was fabricated from ITO/TECEB/BCP/Alq3/Mg:Ag. This
structure is able to emit white light by depending on emission from only one layer, that of TECEB.
Another recent study found that white emission could be obtained from a device containing two blue

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phosphorescent dopants Firpic and plantinum(II) [2-(4,6-difluorophenyl)pyridinato-N,C2’] (2,4-
pentanedionato) (FPt1) as excimers.With each dopant having a concentration of 6%, BCP
(bathocuproine) can produce a bright white emission with a maximum quantum efficiency of 4.4%. [16]
It appears that the future of white emission SMOLEDs may lay with the utilization of
phosphorescent dopants. Although more research is still required in order to overcome the major
challenges of lifetime and colour stability under operating conditions for phosphorescent OLEDs.[16]
PLED
Common Host Polymers for PLEDs
Similar to that of SMOLEDs, white emission PLED can be obtained through the layering of red,
blue and green emitting polymer layers.The colour of the EL obtained from PLED devices can be
changed as desired by simply ‘modifying the chemical structure of the polymer either through the main-
chain molecular structure or through the side-chain structures, as in PPV derivatives.’[16] By doping the
host polymer with luminescent emitters, the EL colour can be tuned. Fluorescent dyes, phosphorescent
emitters or other luminescent polymers are common emitters.These doped host polymers are referred
to as blend systems. Typically in a blend system, ‘the host polymer has a wider energy gap while the
dopant has a smaller energy.’[16] When the host is excited, this excitation energy is transferred to the
dopant molecules ‘through the dipole-dipole interaction (Förster energy transfer), or the direct quantum
mechanical electrons transfer (Dexter energy transfer). By selecting appropriate host and guest
materials, and adjusting the weight ratio of the guest to the host, the white [P]LEDs have also been
successfully demonstrated.’[16]
Common Polymers Utilized in PLEDs
Great success has been achieved in Poly(p-Phenylene Vinylene)-, polyfluorene- and poly(p-
pheylene) -based PLED devices when using the single-layer (single semiconducting layer between the
bilayer anode and metal cathode) structure. Although, it is difficult to utilize this device structure for
polymers with energy gap larger than 2.9eV.[16]
Poly(p-Phenylene Vinylenes)
Poly(p-Phenylene Vinylene) (PPV) and its derivatives popular materials for PLED due to their
relatively good ability to donate electrons and ability to be chemically doped by strong oxidizing agents
and strong acids, producing highly conductive p-doped materials (with conductivity up to ~104
S/cm).
[16]
Polyfluorenes
Polyfluorenes (PF) are an attractive class of materials for PLEDs because of their excellent optical
and electronic properties, and high thermal and chemical stability. However, there is a major problem
encountered with colour instability of blue PLEDs utilizing PFs.Upon thermal annealing of the polymer
film or during device operation, the pure blue emission of PFs can be contaminated by the undesired
contribution of a green emission band (at ca. 530 nm). It is believed that this green emission band is
caused by the formation of fluorenone during these two events.The exact mechanism of the fluorenone
formation is not known at this time, although research continues to search for an explanation. There

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have been studies that have yielded different methods that are effective at reducing the contribution of
this green emission band.The introduction of bulky substituents in PF has been shown to ‘hinder the
energy transfer onto fluorenone defect sites,’[16] thereby stopping the quenching of the blue
fluorescence of PF via production of green emission band.A second study has shown that after
preventing the fluorenone green emission via introduction of bulky substituents to PF, the stability of
the blue colour can be further increased by introducing a buffer layer between the PF and the cathode.
This buffer layer inhibits the formation of fluorenone defects.[16]
Currently, research is focusing on fabricating PLED devices (and that of SMOLEDs) that produce
triplet excitons due to their potential higher quantum efficiencies than that obtained with singlet
excitons.This is because the lifetime of triplet excitons is much longer, typically in the range of 10-7
to
10-3
s, than that of singlet excitons, typically in the range 10-10
to 10-9
s. (The importance of singlet verse
triplet excitons lifetime is expanded upon in the following section). ‘A challenge in this approach is to
prevent the long life triplet excitons from interacting with impurities in the organic layers. More rigorous
requirements on material purity, charge blocking and device encapsulation are anticipated.’[16]
Phosphorescent Materials
There has been a continuous trend of shifting research endeavours toward heavy transition
metal based emitters for OLED applications. Organometallic complexes possessing a heavy transition-
metal element produce strong EL by harvesting both singlet and triplet excitons.[18] This ability gives
heavy transition metal emitters ‘internal phosphorescence quantum efficiency as high as ~100% can be
theoretically achieved,’ and thus are superior to their fluorescent counterparts which can only harvest
singlet excitons.Osmium-, ruthenium-, iridium and platinum-based emitters are popular examples of
heavy transition metal based emitters.[18]
The main problematic issue encountered with ‘phosphorescent emitters in OLED applications is
the saturation of emission sites, which are caused by excessively long lifetimes [and] triplet-triplet
annihilation…’[18] The issue of excessively long lifetimes is not unique to phosphorescent materials as it
is encountered with SMOLEDs and PLEDs as well. ‘The time is takes for the device carrier injection,
conduction, and recombination to come to steady state, such that the rate of formation of excitons
within the device reaches equilibrium, is the RC time constant. Typically, OLEDs have RC time constants
of 200-500ns.’[18] This means that phosphorescent dopants with ‘long lifetimes will be promoted into
their excited states orders of magnitudes faster than they can relax. In the meantime, the OLED will
continue to generate triplet excitons, which will not be effectively trapped by the excited dopant. The
net results are that these dopants are inefficient at trapping triplet excitons,’ [18] as the emission sites
have become saturated. This causes OLED efficiency to decrease as the device current is increased. This
efficiency drop can be prevented by selecting dopants and host combinations so that the host always
has the higher triplet energy.Meanwhile, triplet-triplet annihilation can be avoided by increasing the
radiative decay rate of the ‘phosphorescent dopant, such that the triplet excitons relaxes before coming
into contact with another exciton…thereby decreasing the likelihood that the excitons will undergo
annihilation…’ [18] By preventing excitons annihilation, this will actually increase the luminescent
efficiency.[18]

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Platinum octathylporphyrin (PtOEP) is a popular dopant due to its high intersystem crossing
rate, giving PtOEP the added ability of trapping singlet excitons and rapidly converting them to a triplet,
thus producing only one type of emission – phosphorescence.This ability allows for PtOEP devices with a
‘CBP[4,4’-di(N-carbazolyl)biphenyl] host to have internal efficiencies of 30% and those with an Alq3 host
have internal efficiencies of over 20%.’[18] OLED devices containing other platinum porphyrins have
produced similar results.[18]
The Cyclometallated Ir complex, facial-tris(2-phenylpyridinato,N,C2’
)iridium(III), fac-Ir(ppy)3 is an
example of a ‘ phosphorescent dopant with a comparatively short radiative lifetime and high luminance
efficiency used in OLEDs.’[18] When CBP was doped with an optimal doping level of 6% fac-Ir(ppy)3, the
external efficiencies close to 8% (internal efficiency >40%). When the CBP host material was replaced
‘with a transporting triazole host material, TAZ, the external EL efficiency increased to >15%,
corresponding to an internal efficiency of >75%. The improved efficiency for the TAZ-doped device is
due to an increase in the host triplet energy, leading to a lower level of dopant emission quenching by
the host.’[18]This is further proof that in order to obtain a high external efficiency, it is important for
the host materials to have higher triplet energy than the dopants.
Other than triplet energies, the efficiency of phosphorescent devices can also be improved by
adjusting device architecture. Since phosphorescent dopants produce triplet excitons, more complex
device architectures are required than those for fluorescent dopants. This is due to the differences in
diffusion lengths between singlet and triplet excitons. Triplet excitons can readily diffuse > 1000Å due to
their long excitons lifetimes, whereas singlet excitons can diffuse only 10-100Å. Thus the increased
architecture complexity is required to confine the excitons within the luminescent layer. By doing so, the
external efficiency of the device will increase. [18]
This has been successfully achieve with both PtOEP and Ir(ppy)3-based OLEDs. PtOEP doped into
CBP, as in (ITO/NPD/CBP:PtOEP/Alq3/Mg-Ag) is an example of a successful execution of this. It is
energetically favourable for the PtOEP excitons to diffuse into the adjacent electron transport layer.
Without a blocking layer the external efficiency of the device was 4.2%. After the addition of a blocking
layer (CBP), the resulting device was (anode/NPD/CBP:PtOEP/BCP/Alq3/cathode) with an external
efficiency of 5.6%. [18]
Conclusions
LED CONCLUSION HERE
OLED technology makes many promises of a brilliant and brighter future where energy efficient
OLED panels distribute light evenly throughout office buildings and houses. There are many
technological hurdles yet to be overcome. Some of these hurdles include increasing the lifetime of
organic compounds in order to increase the expected lifetime of panels and finding more efficient and
cost effective techniques of mass-producing larger panels. In order to increase the maximum external
efficiencies of OLED lighting, new ways to improve existing SMOLEDs, PLEDs and PHLEDs along with new
organic materials must be further researched and developed. Once this is achieved, OLED lighting can be

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economically brought to the market the energy consumption of such devices would be a fraction of
current compact fluorescent and incandescent light bulbs.
As solid state lighting technology gains widespread adoptability for various technological and
lighting applications our reliance on the electrical system is reduced, particularly during peak electricity
usage times when lighting is required the most.
References
[1] G. Seaman. “LED Light Bulbs: Comparison Charts.” EarthEasy: Solutions for Sustainable Living.
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