Researchers from the University of Turku and Cornell University have developed a theoretical model showing that by leveraging polaritons one could increase the brightness of OLED devices.
The new model places the OLED device between two semi-transparent mirrors, and thus coupling the OLED emitters with the confined light and creating the new hybrid state of light and matter called a polariton.
Polaritons have been researched before, but this is the first time that a theory that examines the boundaries of performance gains has been submitted. The researchers say that the carefully examined where the polariton sweet spot lies in different scenarios, ad found that the strength of the polaritonic effect in OLEDs' performance depends on the number of coupled molecules - the fewer, the better.
The researchers say that with one of the molecule they studied, the dark-to-bright conversion rate increased by a factor of 10 million. But when looking at a large number of molecules, the polaritonic effect was negligible, and so at the current state of the research, the conversion rate of real OLED devices cannot be enhanced simply by equipping them with the semi-transparent mirrors. The researchers now aim to develop feasible architectures facilitating single-molecule strong coupling or invent new molecules tailored for polariton OLEDs, thus targeting real OLED devices.
