Optical Energy Losses in Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Perovskite Light-Emitting Diodes

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) based on organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites, in particular, 3D and quasi-2D ones, are in the fast development and their external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) have exceeded 10%, making them competitive candidates toward large-area and low-cost light-emitting applications allowing printing techniques. Similar to other LED categories, light out-coupling efficiency is an important parameter determining the EQE of perovskite LEDs (PeLEDs), which, however, is scarcely studied, limiting further efficiency improvement and understanding of PeLEDs. In this work, for the first time, optical energy losses in PeLEDs are investigated through systematic optical simulations, which reveal that the 3D and quasi-2D PeLEDs can achieve theoretically maximum EQEs of approximate to 25% and approximate to 20%, respectively, in spite of their high refractive indices. These results are consistent with the reported experimental data. This work presents primary understanding of the optical energy losses in PeLEDs and will spur new developments in the aspects of device engineering and light extraction techniques to boost the EQEs of PeLEDs.