Transient luminescence in organic light-emitting diodes explained by trap-assisted recombination of stored charges

We show that after voltage turn-off the recombination of the charges which are stored in the on-state may follow a trap-assisted mechanism instead of the Langevin formula in organic light-emitting diodes. A microscopic model based on this form of recombination is introduced, which not only fits the transient electroluminescence very well in the whole range of the off-state but also provides parameters quantitatively characterizing the stored charges in the on-state. In the last part, we briefly compare the work by Weichsel et al. [1] and our model, trying to constitute a comprehensive picture of the stored charges in OLEDs. As an OLED model system we have chosen a host/guest system co-doped with red and green phosphorescent emitters. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.