White organic light-emitting diodes: Status and perspective

White organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are ultrathin, large-area light sources made from organic semiconductor materials. Over the past decades, much research has been spent on finding suitable materials to realize highly efficient monochrome and white OLEDs. With their high efficiency, color t...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Reineke, Sebastian (Contributor), Thomschke, Michael (Author), Lüssem, Björn (Author), Leo, Karl (Author)
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Contributor)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Physical Society, 2013-10-16T12:56:25Z.
Subjects:
Online Access:Get fulltext
Description
Summary:White organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are ultrathin, large-area light sources made from organic semiconductor materials. Over the past decades, much research has been spent on finding suitable materials to realize highly efficient monochrome and white OLEDs. With their high efficiency, color tunability, and color quality, white OLEDs are emerging as one of the next-generation light sources. In this review, the physics of a variety of device concepts that have been introduced to realize white OLEDs based on both polymer and small-molecule organic materials are discussed. Owing to the fact that about 80% of the internally generated photons are trapped within the thin-film layer structure, a second focus is put on reviewing promising concepts for improved light outcoupling.