White emission from organic light-emitting diodes with a super-thin BCP layer

We report a method to achieve white emission from organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) in which a super-thin (3 nm) hole blocking layer, 2,9-dimethyl-4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline (BCP), was inserted between electron-transport layer 8-hydroxyquinoline aluminum (Alq₃) and 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-t-butyl-6(1,1,7,7-tetramethyljulolidyl-9-enyl)-4H-pyran (DCJTB) doped poly-vinlycarbazole (PVK) layer. The BCP layer can not only confine exciton in the emitting layer but also control energy transfer proportion from PVK to Alq₃ and then from Alq₃ to DCJTB through BCP layer. In this way, pure white emission with CIE coordinate of (0.32, 0.32) was obtained and it was voltage independent. The brightness reached 270 cd/m² at 18 V with an efficiency of 0.166 cd/A.