Organic light-emitting device with an ordered monolayer of silica microspheres as a scattering medium

Periodic dielectric structures, consisting of hexagonally closed-packed arrays of silica microspheres with the diameter of 550 nm, were incorporated into organic light-emitting devices with a conventional two-layer structure made with vacuum-sublimation. The arrays acted as a two-dimensional diffraction lattice which behaved as a light scattering medium for the light propagated in waveguiding modes within the device. Strongly scattered light emission through the front surface of the devices was observed. An increase in the device coupling-out factor for electroluminescent efficiency by using the scattering structure is demonstrated. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)00810-X].