Dipole emission in stratified media with multiple spherical scatterers: Enhanced outcoupling from OLEDs

•We exactly model dipole radiation in layered media with scattering spheres.•This allows us to study internal outcoupling in organic light emitting diodes.•We check energy conservation and compare near field results to FEM calculations.•The approach is applied to a realistic OLED structure.

Scattering particles find application in organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) for an enhanced outcoupling of the generated light. This paper presents a computational scheme to exactly model the electromagnetic fields and the power outcoupling efficiency of a typical OLED geometry, comprising a thin film system with spherical scattering particles inside. The model is based on the expansion of the fields in plane and spherical vector wave functions, as well as the scattering matrix formalism for the layer system reflections. In a numerical application example, the effect of 1000 spherical high index scattering particles on the internal outcoupling from a realistic OLED structure is discussed.