Strong red emission in heterojunctions of conjugated polymer blends

Abstract

We demonstrate strong red electroluminescence in bilayer polymer light-emitting diodes with poly(3-hexylthiophene) and polyfluorene copolymers. The emission spectrum of the diode, peaked at 612 nm, is different from either of the two polymer layers, and is attributed to the exciplex state existing only at the heterojunction. The efficiency of this junction emission is very high for red polymer light-emitting diodes. Peak luminance of 3500 cd/m(2) with yield 1.3 cd/A is achieved. The emission color can be made more saturated by blending red-emitting polymers into the polyfluorene to eliminate the small residual green emission. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.