Highly efficient blue organic light-emitting diodes using various hole and electron confinement layers

In this Letter, blue phosphorescence organic light-emitting diodes (PHOLEDs) employ structures for electron and/or hole confinement; 1,3,5-tris(N-phenylbenzimiazole-2-yl)benzene is used as a hole confinement layer and tris-(phenylpyrazole)iridium [Ir(ppz)3] is utilized for an electron confinement layer (ECL). The electrical and optical properties of the fabricated blue PHOLEDs with various carrier-confinement structures are analyzed. Structures with a large energy offset between the carrier confinement and emitting layers enhance the charge-carrier balance in the emitting region, resulting from the effective carrier confinement. The maximum external quantum efficiency of the blue PHOLEDs with the double-ECLs is 24.02% at 1500 cd/m2 and its luminous efficiency is 43.76 cd/A, which is 70.47% improved compared to the device without a carrier-confinement layer.