Completely Hazy and Transparent Films by Embedding Air Gaps for Elimination of Angular Color Shift in Organic Light-Emitting Diodes

Red, green, and blue top-emission organic light-emitting diodes (RGB TOLEDs) suffer from white color change with viewing angle due to the microcavity effect, called white angular dependence (WAD). Great efforts are devoted by applying various kinds of hazy films, but they suffer from poor mechanical stability and optical transmittance. Herein, we introduce an air-gap-embedded hazy film (AEHF) to solve these problems and suppress WAD in RGB TOLEDs. The AEHF is designed with optical simulation to realize high haze with transparency. By tuning geometries of the air gap inside the polymer, the AEHF realizes high haze of more than 90% in all RGB colors while maintaining high transparency. To experimentally demonstrate the AEHF, the O2 plasma is treated on a polymer film with AgCl as an etching mask to fabricate microstructures with high aspect ratios. Afterward, PDMS is coated on the patterned surface; air gaps develop spontaneously in the valleys between microstructures during the coating process. Using these processes, an air gap with 1.2 μm size and 400 nm period is formed inside the film and ∼100% haze is achieved while maintaining a high transmittance of 88%; these results agree well with rigorous coupled wave analysis results. By utilizing the AEHF into TOLEDs, the WAD can be drastically suppressed by 95.2% compared with that of a device without AEHF.