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.