Design of efficient electroluminescent lanthanide(III) complexes

The lanthanide complexes have been anticipated to exhibit high efficiency along with a narrow emission spectrum. Photoluminescence for the lanthanide complex is characterized by a high efficiency since both singlet and triplet excitons are involved in the luminescence process. However, the maximum external electroluminescence quantum efficiencies have exhibited values around 1% due to triplet-triplet annihilation at high current. Here, we proposed a new energy transfer mechanism to overcome triplet-triplet annihilation by the Eu. complex doped into phosphorescent materials with triplet levels that were higher than singlet levels of the Eu complex. In order to show the feasibility of the proposed energy transfer mechanism and to obtain the optimal ligands and host material, we have calculated the effect depending on ligands as a factor that controls emission intensity in lanthanide complexes. The calculation shows that triplet state as well as singlet state of anion ligand affects on absorption efficiency indirectly.