Exploiting Singlet Fission in Organic Light-Emitting Diodes

Ryo Nagata, Hajime Nakanotani, William J. Potscavage, Chihaya Adachi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

76 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Harvesting of both triplets and singlets yields electroluminescence quantum efficiencies of nearly 100% in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), but the production efficiency of excitons that can undergo radiative decay is theoretically limited to 100% of the electron–hole pairs. Here, breaking of this limit by exploiting singlet fission in an OLED is reported. Based on the dependence of electroluminescence intensity on an applied magnetic field, it is confirmed that triplets produced by singlet fission in a rubrene host matrix are emitted as near-infrared (NIR) electroluminescence by erbium(III) tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) (ErQ3) after excitonic energy transfer from the “dark” triplet state of rubrene to an “emissive” state of ErQ3, leading to NIR electroluminescence with an overall exciton production efficiency of 100.8%. This demonstration clearly indicates that the harvesting of triplets produced by singlet fission as electroluminescence is possible even under electrical excitation, leading to an enhancement of the quantum efficiency of the OLEDs. Electroluminescence employing singlet fission provides a route toward developing high-intensity NIR light sources, which are of particular interest for sensing, optical communications, and medical applications.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1801484
JournalAdvanced Materials
Volume30
Issue number33
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 16 2018

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Materials Science(all)
  • Mechanics of Materials
  • Mechanical Engineering

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