The contribution of triplet–triplet annihilation to the lifetime and efficiency of fluorescent polymer organic light emitting diodes

We demonstrate that the fast initial decay of a prototypical fluorescent polymer based organic light emitting diode device is related to the contribution that triplet–triplet annihilation makes to the device efficiency. We show that, during typical operating conditions, approximately 20% of the device efficiency originates from the production of singlet excitons by triplet–triplet annihilation. During prolonged device operation, the triplet excitons are quenched much more easily than the emissive singlets; thus, the contribution to the efficiency from triplet–triplet annihilation is lost during the early stages of the device lifetest. The fast initial decay of the device luminance can be removed by incorporating a triplet quenching additive into the active layer to remove any effect of triplet–triplet annihilation; this yields an increase in the device lifetime of greater than 3× and an even more significant improvement in the initial luminance decay.