Reducing Efficiency Roll-Off in Multi-Resonant Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescent OLEDs through Modulation of the Energy of the T2 State

The S-1 state and high-lying triplet excited states (Delta E-S1Tn) offer insight into clarifying the mechanism of efficiency roll-off of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). However, experimental detection of the Delta E-S1Tn is challenging due to Kasha's rule. Here, two emitters, PhCz-O-DiKTa and PhCz-DiKTa, showing multi-resonant thermally activated delayed fluorescence (MR-TADF) are reported. By modulating the conjugation between the MR-TADF DiKTa emissive center and donor substituent, emission directly from the T-2 state is for the first time observed in MR-TADF emitters. Single crystal and reduced density gradient analyses reveal the origin of the reduced observed concentration-quenching results from weak CH center dot center dot center dot pi and slipped pi center dot center dot center dot pi stacking interactions, which suppress nonradiative transitions. Theoretical and photophysical investigations reveal that the Delta E-S1T2 difference influences the reverse intersystem crossing rate. The OLEDs employing PhCz-O-DiKTa and PhCz-DiKTa as emitters show maximum external quantum efficiencies (EQE(max)) of over 20%, but very different efficiency roll-off behavior (54.5% vs 13.6% at 100 cd m(-2)). Thus, this design provides a possible solution to mitigating device efficiency roll-off by designing MR-TADF emitters with degenerate S-1 and T-2 states.

Automated summary

This study reports the observation of emission directly from the T-2 state in multi-resonant thermally activated delayed fluorescence (MR-TADF) emitters for the first time by modulating the conjugation between the emissive center and donor substituent. Theoretical and photophysical investigations reveal that the Delta E-S1T2 difference influences the reverse intersystem crossing rate. Therefore, designing MR-TADF emitters with degenerate S-1 and T-2 states provides a possible solution to mitigate device efficiency roll-off.