Solution-based nanostructure to reduce waveguide and surface plasmon losses in organic light-emitting diodes

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) typically have low out-coupling efficiency. In this paper, a solution-based nanoparticle layer is presented as a nanostructure to enhance the out-coupling efficiency of OLEDs. Silica nanoparticles (NPs) are randomly distributed on indium tin oxide by spin-coating a silica NP solution. By further spin-coating poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) as a hole injection layer, a randomly corrugated PEDOT:PSS layer is fabricated. A nanostructured OLED having the corrugated PEDOT:PSS layer above the NP layer shows enhanced external quantum efficiency and power efficiency because the trapped light of the waveguide and surface plasmon modes is extracted by Bragg diffraction. The nanostructured OLED shows no angular dependence due to the broad periodicities of the corrugation. The simply fabricated and cost-effective silica NP layer nanostructure, which does not require a lithography step, has potential to enhance the efficiency of both white OLED displays and lighting. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.