Highly efficient inverted top-emitting organic light-emitting diodes using a lead monoxide electron injection layer.

By introducing an effective electron injection layer (EIL) material, i.e., lead monoxide (PbO), combined with the optical design in device structure, a high efficiency inverted top-emitting organic light-emitting diode (ITOLED) with saturated and quite stable colors for different viewing angles is demonstrated. The green ITOLED based on 10-(2-benzothiazolyl)-1, 1, 7, 7-tetramethyl-2, 3, 6, 7-tetrahydro-1H, 5H, 11H-[1] benzopyrano [6, 7, 8-ij] quinolizin-11-one exhibits a maximum current efficiency of 33.8 cd/A and a maximum power efficiency of 16.6 lm/W, accompanied by a nearly Lambertian distribution as well as hardly detectable color variation in the 140 degrees forward viewing cone. A detailed analysis on the role mechanism of PbO in electron injection demonstrates that the insertion of the PbO EIL significantly reduces operational voltage, thus greatly improving the device efficiency. More importantly, the optically optimized device structure by setting the resonant wavelength at the peak wavelength of the intrinsic emission of the emitter and adding an effective outcoupling layer further enhances the device efficiency, at the same time, also reduces the color shift with viewing angles, leading to the simultaneous optimization in efficiency and angular emission characteristics in the fabricated ITOLEDs.