Localized surface plasmons enhanced color conversion efficiency in organic light-emitting device with surface color conversion layer

• Ag nanoparticles were inserted between OLED substrate and color conversion layer.
• Color conversion efficiency was enhanced by Ag nanoparticles because of LSPs.
• Ag nanoparticles decreased the thickness of surface color conversion layer.

This paper demonstrates localized surface plasmons (LSPs) enhanced color conversion efficiency in organic light-emitting device (OLED) with surface color conversion layer (SCCL). Ag nanoparticles (AgNps) deposited by thermal evaporation between substrate and SCCL were used for localized surface plasmons. The high-density, strong photons-LSPs coupling achieved by AgNps leads to a photoluminescence (PL) enhancement in the SCCL. The electroluminescent (EL) measurements show that SCCL–OLED incorporated with AgNps has a 28% enhancement in color conversion efficiency compared with that of a conventional SCCL–OLED without AgNps which is attributed to strong electromagnetic field caused by LSP resonance of AgNps. Moreover, we verify that SCCL with LSPs of AgNps can effectively decrease the thickness of SCCL in the OLED.