Study on the degradation mechanism of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs)

The degradation mechanism occurring in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), especially the recovery behaviour related to this degradation, was investigated. It was found that the recovery can to some extent occur spontaneously. However, recovery can also be achieved through the application of an external electric field. The recovery rate associated with electric-field induced recovery is considerably larger than that arising from spontaneous recovery. A degradation model which can explain well many of the phenomena related to the degradation of OLEDs is proposed.