Optical and electrical characteristics of organic light-emitting diodes with two-dimensional photonic crystals in organic/electrode layers

Efficient light extraction is a critical issue for improving the overall efficiency of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Improvements in OLED efficiency are studied via the introduction of photonic crystal (PC) layers, which are expected to enable versatile control of photons. We fabricate two-dimensional PC structures in organic and electrode layers, in which most light is confined, to extract the light in the waveguide mode. Improvements in OLED efficiency of 20 and 130% are observed in spectrally integrated intensity and the peak intensity of forward-propagating light, respectively, in comparison with samples without PCs. As the thickness of the organic layer is partially reduced, lower operating voltages are found not to degrade light-extraction efficiency. We can expect further improvement in the overall OLED efficiency by optimizing PC structure.