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Efficient and low-voltage vertical organic permeable base light-emitting transistors

Nature Materials volume 20, pages 1007–1014 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Organic light-emitting transistors, three-terminal devices combining a thin-film transistor with a light-emitting diode, have generated increasing interest in organic electronics. However, increasing their efficiency while keeping the operating voltage low still remains a key challenge. Here, we demonstrate organic permeable base light-emitting transistors; these three-terminal vertical optoelectronic devices operate at driving voltages below 5.0 V; emit in the red, green and blue ranges; and reach, respectively, peak external quantum efficiencies of 19.6%, 24.6% and 11.8%, current efficiencies of 20.6 cd A–1, 90.1 cd A–1 and 27.1 cd A–1 and maximum luminance values of 9,833 cd m–2, 12,513 cd m–2 and 4,753 cd m–2. Our simulations demonstrate that the nano-pore permeable base electrode located at the centre of the device, which forms a distinctive optical microcavity and regulates charge carrier injection and transport, is the key to the good performance obtained. Our work paves the way towards efficient and low-voltage organic light-emitting transistors, useful for power-efficient active matrix displays and solid-state lighting.

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Fig. 1: Fabrication of organic permeable base light-emitting transistors.
Fig. 2: OPB-LET device operation under low driving voltages.
Fig. 3: Efficient and reproducible red, green and blue OPB-LETs by exciton and photon engineering.
Fig. 4: TCAD electrical simulations.
Fig. 5: Optical simulation for present OPB-LET architecture.

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Data availability

All the data that support this study are included in this article and its Supplementary Information files. The data that support the findings of this study are also available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the funding by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) in the fflexcom SPP. Z.W. appreciates the funding from the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Y.L. and E.G. acknowledge financial support from the China Scholarship Council (no. 201506920047 and 201706890003). We acknowledge the use of the HZDR Ion Beam Center transmission electron microscopy facilities and the funding of transmission electron microscope Talos by the German Federal Ministry of Education of Research (BMBF; grant no. 03SF0451) in the frame-work of HEMCP. We thank S. Lenk and S. Reineke at Technische Universität Dresden for fruitful discussions, A. Tahn at Dresden Center for Nanoanalysis (DCN) for assistance with the scanning electron microscopy measurement and P. Formánek at Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden e.V. (IPF) for the transmission electron microscopy measurement. Z.W. also appreciates the support from the Institute of Flexible Electronics and Northwestern Polytechnical University.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Yuan Liu

    Present address: Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Optoelectronic Measurement Technology and Instrument, Beijing Information Science and Technology University, Beijing, China

  2. These authors contributed equally: Zhongbin Wu, Yuan Liu, Erjuan Guo.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Frontiers Science Center for Flexible Electronics, Institute of Flexible Electronics (IFE), Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China

    Zhongbin Wu

  2. Dresden Integrated Center for Applied Physics and Photonic Materials (IAPP) and Institute for Applied Physics, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Zhongbin Wu, Yuan Liu, Erjuan Guo, Shu-Jen Wang, Hans Kleemann & Karl Leo

  3. NanoP, TH Mittelhessen, University of Applied Sciences, Giessen, Germany

    Ghader Darbandy & Alexander Kloes

  4. Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Dresden, Germany

    René Hübner

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Contributions

Z.W., H.K. and K.L. supervised this project. Z.W., Y.L., H.K. and K.L. conceived the idea and designed the experiments. Z.W. and Y.L. carried out the calibration of the measurement equipment, device characterizations and the optical simulations. Y.L. conducted the optical measurement. E.G. was involved in the sample preparation and device characterizations (electrical characterization, scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy) and contributed to the interpretation of the data. G.D. and A.K. made the TCAD simulation. R.H. performed the HAADF-STEM and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy measurements. Z.W., Y.L., E.G., S.-J.W., H.K. and K.L. analysed the data and cowrote the manuscript. All authors commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zhongbin Wu.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Peer review information Nature Materials thanks Michele Muccini, Andrew Rinzler and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–16, Notes 1 and 2, Tables 1–4 and references.

Supplementary Video 1

The on/off switching function of OPB-LETs.

Supplementary Video 2

The luminance variation of OPB-LETs.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 3

EQE, luminance and current efficiency of red, green and blue OPB-LETs.

Source Data Fig. 5

Optical simulation of the green OPB-LETs.

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Wu, Z., Liu, Y., Guo, E. et al. Efficient and low-voltage vertical organic permeable base light-emitting transistors. Nat. Mater. 20, 1007–1014 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-021-00937-0

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