Publication date: 28th August 2024
In recent years, metal halide perovskites have emerged as a new class of semiconductors with remarkable optoelectronic properties. Owing to their low cost, tuneable bandgaps, high luminescence quantum yields and narrow emission bandwidth, perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) become one of the most promising candidates for next-generation display technology. Molecular and ionic additives have been widely used as effective strategies to enhance the external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) and operational stability of PeLEDs. Here we present the latest results from our group on efficient and stable PeLEDs enabled by different types of additives. Understanding the effects of additives is of great importance for developing high-performance PeLEDs. The roles of additives have been identified as passivators to eliminate deep-level defects in the early stages of development, as stabilizers to suppress ion migration, and more recently as electronic dopants to control the semiconducting properties of perovskites. Dipolar molecular stabilizers have been demonstrated to be able to form strong bonds or interactions with cations and anions at the grain boundaries in perovskites, enabling high-performance near-infrared PeLEDs with record-long operational lifetimes (T50, extrapolated) of 11,539 h (~1.3 years) and 32,675 h (~3.7 years) for initial radiance (or current densities) of 3.7 W sr−1 m−2 (~5.0 mA cm−2) and 2.1 W sr−1 m−2 (~3.2 mA cm−2), respectively, with even longer lifetimes forecasted for lower radiance[1]. Stability of red[2] and green[3] PeLEDs is also enhanced to a certain extent with similar strategies. Further, a phosphonic acid molecular dopant with strong electron-withdrawing abilities was found to be able to adjust the p- and n-type characteristics in a perovskite emitter, unlocking the direction of controllable electronic doping in perovskite semiconductors. The controllable doping in the emissive perovskite semiconductor enables the demonstration of ultrahigh brightness (1.16 × 106 cd m−2) with an exceptional EQE of 28.4% in PeLEDs.