Enhanced efficiency of organic light-emitting devices with metallic electrodes by integrating periodically corrugated structure

Photons trapped in form of surface-plasmon polariton (SPP) modes associated with the metallic electrode/organic interface results in a large energy loss in organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs). We demonstrate efficient outcoupling of SPP modes from one of two metal electrodes by integrating a periodic wavelength-scale corrugation into the device structure. 30% enhancement in efficiency has been obtained from the corrugated OLEDs with appropriate grating period. The efficient outcoupling of the SPPs has been verified by numerical simulations of both absorption spectra and field distribution. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3680595]