Simplified organic light-emitting devices utilizing ultrathin electron transport layers and new insights on their roles.

The lifetime of organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) can be limited by exciton-polaron interactions at the organic/organic interfaces. In this work, we show that simplified phosphorescent OLEDs (PHOLEDs) are subjected to this phenomenon. By reducing the exciton concentration at the emission layer (EML)/electron transport layer (ETL) interface by means of increasing the EML thickness, hence broadening the recombination zone, the device lifetime can indeed be improved. Moreover, we report a device that displays the same extended lifetime, but with only 1 nm thin ETL. Studying the roles of this ultrathin ETL in increasing device efficiency reveals that electron injection, hole blocking, and triplet exciton blocking are all important factors. Hole blocking of the ETL can be achieved by highest occupied molecular orbitals level mismatch, where a layer thickness as low as 1 nm is sufficient, or by low hole mobility of the ETL, where a much thicker layer is required (> 5 nm). This ultrathin ETL also enables devices with only 50 nm total organic stacks, which is more than 50% thinner than the typical. This structure opens up opportunities for much shorter processing time and lower fabrication costs in the OLED industry.