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Visible quantum dot light-emitting diodes with simultaneous high brightness and efficiency

Nature Photonics volume 13, pages 192–197 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

Quantum dot light-emitting diodes are promising light sources for applications in displays. However, to date, there have been no reports of devices that simultaneously offer both high brightness and high external quantum efficiency. Here, we report red, green and blue quantum dot light-emitting diodes based on CdSe/ZnSe core/shell structures that have these attributes. We demonstrate devices with maximum external quantum efficiencies of 21.6%, 22.9% and 8.05% for red, green and blue colours with corresponding brightness of 13,300 cd m–2, 52,500 cd m–2 and 10,100 cd m–2. The devices also offer peak luminance of 356,000 cd m–2, 614,000 cd m–2 and 62,600 cd m–2, respectively. We postulate that this high performance is due to the use of Se throughout the core/shell regions and the existence of alloyed bridging layers at the core/shell interfaces. This study suggests that in the future visible quantum dot light-emitting diodes will also be suitable for lighting applications.

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Fig. 1: Schematic of the device architecture and electroluminescence performance of the red, green and blue QLEDs.
Fig. 2: Lifetime measurements of the QLED devices for the three primary colours.
Fig. 3: Characterization of the morphology and composition of the QDs for the green QLEDs.
Fig. 4: Equivalent circuit model of the QLEDs and comparison between the simulated and experimental results.

Data availability

The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 61474037, 61874039, 11634011, 61434002, 11722435, 11504357, 11404314 and 21671058), Key Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number U1604261), National Key Basic Research Programme of China (grant number 2017YFA0303500), and the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province (1708085MA06).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Special Functional Materials of Ministry of Education, National & Local Joint Engineering Research Centre for High-efficiency Display and Lighting Technology, School of Materials and Engineering, Collaborative Innovation Centre of Nano Functional Materials and Applications, Henan University, Kaifeng, China

    Huaibin Shen, Yanbin Zhang, Qingli Lin, Zhaohan Li, Ling Chen, Zaiping Zeng, Yu Jia, Shujie Wang, Zuliang Du & Lin Song Li

  2. International Centre for Quantum Design of Functional Materials (ICQD), Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, Synergetic Innovation Centre of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China

    Qiang Gao & Zhenyu Zhang

  3. Institute for Advanced Study, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China

    Qiang Gao & Xiaoguang Li

  4. Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China

    Yue Lin

  5. School of Physics and Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China

    Yu Jia

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  1. Huaibin Shen
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Contributions

H.B.S. and Z.Y.Z. conceived the central ideas and concepts. H.B.S., Y.B.Z. and Q.L.L. synthesized the materials, fabricated the devices and collected the performance data of the QLEDs. Q.G., X.L. and Z.Y.Z. developed the equivalent circuit model. H.B.S. and Z.H.L. characterized the non-blinking aspects. Y.L. performed the HAADF-STEM characterizations. L.C. and S.J.W. obtained the SEM data. H.B.S., Q.G. and Z.Y.Z. wrote the manuscript. Z.Y.Z., Z.L.D. and L.S.L. directed the project. All authors discussed the results and assisted in the data interpretation and manuscript preparation.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Zuliang Du, Lin Song Li or Zhenyu Zhang.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Information

Detailed analysis of the emission properties of the LEDs.

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Shen, H., Gao, Q., Zhang, Y. et al. Visible quantum dot light-emitting diodes with simultaneous high brightness and efficiency. Nature Photon 13, 192–197 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-019-0364-z

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