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Valley-centre tandem perovskite light-emitting diodes

Nature Nanotechnology (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) have emerged as a promising new light source for displays. The development roadmap for commercializing PeLEDs should include a tandem device structure, specifically by stacking a thin nanocrystal PeLED unit and an organic light-emitting diode unit, which can achieve a vivid and efficient tandem display; however, simply combining light-emitting diodes with different characteristics does not guarantee both narrowband emission and high efficiency, as it may cause a broadened electroluminescence spectra and a charge imbalance. Here, by conducting optical simulations of the hybrid tandem (h-tandem) PeLED, we have discovered a crucial optical microcavity structure known as the h-tandem valley, which enables the h-tandem PeLED to emit light with a narrow bandwidth. Specifically, the centre structure of the h-tandem valley (we call it valley-centre tandem) demonstrates near-perfect charge balance and optimal microcavity effects. As a result, the h-tandem PeLED achieves a high external quantum efficiency of 37.0% and high colour purity with a narrow full-width at half-maximum of 27.3 nm (versus 64.5 nm in organic light-emitting diodes) along with a fast on–off response. These findings offer a new strategy to overcome the limitations of nanocrystal-based PeLEDs, providing valuable optical and electrical guidelines for integrating different types of light-emitting device into practical display applications.

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Fig. 1: Concept of h-tandem PeLED and the crucial optical microcavity structure (h-tandem valley).
Fig. 2: Device characteristics of the PeLED, OLED and h-tandem PeLED.
Fig. 3: Electrical optimization of tandem devices by varying the ETLs of bottom and top units.
Fig. 4: Optical simulation and device characteristics of valley-centre tandem and thick tandem.
Fig. 5: Electrical and optical optimizations of h-tandem PeLED by varying the ZADN (ETL) thickness of the PeLED unit in the tandem device.

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The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant Brain Link program (2022H1D3A3A01081288) and the NRF grant funded by the Korea government (Ministry of Science and ICT) (NRF-2016R1A3B1908431, 2022M3H4A1A04096380).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Hyeon-Dong Lee, Seung-Je Woo, Sungjin Kim.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Hyeon-Dong Lee, Seung-Je Woo, Sungjin Kim, Huanyu Zhou, Shin Jung Han, Kyung Yeon Jang, Dong-Hyeok Kim, Jinwoo Park & Tae-Woo Lee

  2. School of Electrical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea

    Junho Kim & Seunghyup Yoo

  3. Institute of Engineering Research, Research Institute of Advanced Materials, Soft Foundry, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Tae-Woo Lee

  4. SN Display Co., Ltd., Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Tae-Woo Lee

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Contributions

H.-D.L., S.-J.W. and T.-W.L. conceived the research idea. H.-D.L. and S.K. fabricated the devices. S.-J.W. performed the optical simulation and optical and photophysical analyses of the devices. S.-J.W., H.-D.L. and J.P. performed the transient EL measurement of the devices. S.-J.W. and H.-D.L. performed the electrical analysis of the devices. S.K. synthesized the nanocrystals. S.-J.W., J.K. and S.Y. discussed the optical simulation results. H.-D.L. measured the J–V–L data of the devices. H.Z., S.J.H. and H.-D.L. fabricated the flexible LED devices. S.-J.W., K.Y.J. and D.-H.K. performed the transient PL measurements of the thin-film samples. S.-J.W., H.-D.L., S.K. and T.-W.L. wrote the paper. All authors contributed to the final paper. T.-W.L. supervised the research project.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tae-Woo Lee.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Nanotechnology thanks Cuong Dang, Biwu Ma and Jingbi You for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Device lifetime characteristics of PeLED and hybrid tandem PeLED.

a, The device lifetime of PeLED and hybrid tandem PeLED. The hybrid tandem PeLED showed device lifetime LT50 = 113 hours at L0 = 1,000 cd m−2 of electrical stress which corresponds to estimated lifetime of 5,596 hours at L0 = 100 cd m−2 using common acceleration factor of n = 1.78,30, whereas the single PeLED showed very short device lifetime (LT50 = 1 hour 48 min) at L0 = 100 cd m−2. b, EL spectra of hybrid tandem PeLED as a function of operating time at L0 = 1,000 cd m−2.

Extended Data Table 1 Device performance of single PeLED, single OLED, and hybrid tandem PeLED
Full size table

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–25 and Tables 1–3.

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Lee, HD., Woo, SJ., Kim, S. et al. Valley-centre tandem perovskite light-emitting diodes. Nat. Nanotechnol. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-023-01581-2

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