Navigating CIE Space for Efficient TADF Downconversion WOLEDs

Abstract

High efficiency orange and green emitting perylene dyes have been synthesised and dispersed in an inert polymer host to form an optical downconversion layer. To avoid dye aggregation and allow controlled colour tuning, this layer was deposited in multiple low-concentration spin-coating steps, directly on top of a high performance blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) organic light emitting diode (OLED). The orange downconversion layer partially absorbs the blue OLED emission, while emitting a complementary orange to give white light. However, as energy transfer between the TADF and perylene down converter is based on emission and reabsorption, absorptive filtering of the blue OLED emission band necessitates the inclusion of an additional green-emitting perylene top-layer to achieve optimal white balance. The optimised white OLED fabricated in this way displayed excellent white colour balance (CIE x, y; 0.33, 0.33) with perfect stability, good colour rendering (CRI 80), and a high maximum efficiency (maximum EQE 17.2%) with minimal losses compared to the base blue OLED. This approach is widely applicable for generating white emission from any kind of blue OLED, and is compatible with a wide range of downconverting dyes and host materials.