Extraction enhancement in organic light emitting devices by using metallic nanowire arrays

The extraction efficiency of organic light emitting devices is enhanced by depositing metallic nanowires on the glass surface and indium tin oxide (ITO) anode. For the aluminum tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline) (Alq3) based devices, a 100 nm-width and 450 nm-period gold nanowire array increases light extraction up to 46% from glass substrate and 80% from the organic layer. Such metallic nanowire arrays double the brightness with small absorption, only 10% lower than ITO glass. In addition, colors of the devices can be selected by the period of nanowire array. We demonstrated blue to red light emission by using single Alq3-based device. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.