Electroluminescent Organic and Quantum Dot LEDs: The State of the Art

A detailed background into the reasons for the feverish interest and growing impact on commercial market share of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology for lighting and display applications is given. Following this, the increasing discussion over whether electroluminescent devices based on quantum dots will ever challenge that of organics in displays is considered. The unique physics and chemistry of quantum dots results in narrow emission bands and increased stability over organic dyes meaning the potential for this is significant. The current best efficiencies of quantum dot devices and associated device structures from the literature are presented followed by a comparison of devices fabricated with organic materials, in particular those of polymers, metal complexes (fluorescent and phosphorescent) and small molecules.