Progress on ultraviolet organic electroluminescence and lasing

Abstract

Ultraviolet (UV) organic optoelectronic devices have attracted extensive research owing to their great potential in variety of applications such as biological and chemical sensing, excitation light sources, high-density information storage, and optoelectronic circuits. This review focusses on UV organic light-emitting diodes and organic solid-state lasers, and covers their recent development from organic chromophores and device configuration to practical applications. Firstly, materials with efficient short-wavelength emission are summarized with an emphasis on the characteristics of their structures. Subsequently, we outline the device architectures used for increasing the efficiency and performance of the devices. Finally, we discuss the progress and challenges of using UV OLEDs and organic solid-state lasers as excitation sources in emerging applications and hope this can help stimulate the exploitation of UV light sources in more applications in future.