Suppression of efficiency roll-off in TADF-OLEDs using Ag-island nanostructures with localized surface plasmon resonance effect

Abstract Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) have emerged as promising alternatives to phosphorescent OLEDs for harvesting both singlet and triplet excitons. However, the development of TADF-OLEDs meets a thorny problem of serious efficiency roll-off at high luminance. Here, we demonstrate an approach to suppress the efficiency roll-off characteristics in TADF-OLEDs by localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect of easy-fabricated Ag-island nanostructures. Compared with the common TADF-OLEDs at a high current density of 100 mA cm −2 , the efficiency roll-off ratio of the TADF-OLEDs with Ag-island nanostructures decreases from 49.75% to 35.76% significantly, and the maximum current efficiency is increased by 10.5%. The performance enhancement is mainly attributed to the coupling between excitons and localized surface plasmons (LSPs), which could alter the excited state kinetic characteristics of TADF molecules.