Highly efficient blue electroluminescence based on thermally activated delayed fluorescence

Shuzo Hirata, Yumi Sakai, Kensuke Masui, Hiroyuki Tanaka, Sae Youn Lee, Hiroko Nomura, Nozomi Nakamura, Mao Yasumatsu, Hajime Nakanotani, Qisheng Zhang, Katsuyuki Shizu, Hiroshi Miyazaki, Chihaya Adachi

Organic compounds that exhibit highly efficient, stable blue emission are required to realize inexpensive organic light-emitting diodes for future displays and lighting applications. Here, we define the design rules for increasing the electroluminescence efficiency of blue-emitting organic molecules that exhibit thermally activated delayed fluorescence. We show that a large delocalization of the highest occupied molecular orbital and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital in these charge-transfer compounds enhances the rate of radiative decay considerably by inducing a large oscillator strength even when there is a small overlap between the two wavefunctions. A compound based on our design principles exhibited a high rate of fluorescence decay and efficient up-conversion of triplet excitons into singlet excited states, leading to both photoluminescence and internal electroluminescence quantum yields of nearly 100%.