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Article
Spectrally narrowed edge emission from leaky waveguide modes in organic light-emitting diodes
Journal of Applied Physics
  • Zhengqing Gan, Iowa State University
  • Yun Tian, Iowa State University
  • David W. Lynch, Iowa State University
  • Ji-hun Kang, Korea University - Korea
  • Q-Han Park, Korea University - Korea
  • Joseph Shinar, Iowa State University
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2009
DOI
10.1063/1.3253582
Abstract
A dramatic spectral line narrowing of the edge emission at room temperature from tris(quinolinolate) Al (Alq3), N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(1-naphthylphenyl)-1,1′-biphenyl-4,4′-diamine (NPD), 4,4′-bis(2,2′-diphenyl-vinyl)-,1′-biphenyl (DPVBi), and some guest-host small molecular organic light-emitting diodes(OLEDs), fabricated on indium tin oxide (ITO)-coated glass, is described. In all but the DPVBi OLEDs, the narrowed emission band emerges above a threshold thickness of the emitting layer, and narrows down to a full width at half maximum of only 5–10 nm. The results demonstrate that this narrowed emission is due to irregular waveguide modes that leak from the ITO to the glass substrate at a grazing angle. While measurements of variable stripe length l devices exhibit an apparent weak optical gain 0≤g≤1.86 cm−1, there is no observable threshold current or bias associated with this spectral narrowing. In addition, in the phosphorescent guest-host OLEDs, there is no decrease in the emission decay time of the narrowed edge emission relative to the broad surface emission. It is suspected that the apparent weak optical gain is due to misalignment of the axis of the waveguided mode and the axis of the collection lens of the probe. However, it is not clear if such a misalignment can account for all the effects of the observed evolution of the edge-emission spectra with l.
Comments

The following article appeared in Journal of Applied Physics 106 (2009): 094502, and may be found at doi:10.1063/1.3253582.

Rights
Copyright 2009 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics.
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Citation Information
Zhengqing Gan, Yun Tian, David W. Lynch, Ji-hun Kang, et al.. "Spectrally narrowed edge emission from leaky waveguide modes in organic light-emitting diodes" Journal of Applied Physics Vol. 106 (2009) p. 094502-1 - 094502-11
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/david_lynch1/27/