Organic Light-Emitting Transistor Technologies

Organic light-emitting transistors (OLETs) combine the luminescence of organic light-emitting diodes with the switching capabilities of thin-film transistors, creating multifunctional optoelectronic devices. In an OLET, charge carriers are injected into an organic semiconductor channel where they recombine to emit light under gate bias, offering precise spatial control of emission. Recent advances have addressed the historic trade-off between high photoluminescence quantum yield and efficient charge transport by optimising molecular design, crystal engineering and device architecture. Microcavity structures, novel electrode materials and integration with photonic elements have enhanced brightness, external quantum efficiency and modulation speed. Applications range from active-matrix displays and on-chip optical interconnects to compact sensing platforms. Ongoing challenges include long-term operational stability, uniform large-area fabrication and further improvements in charge-injection balance, but the field continues to mature through interdisciplinary innovations in materials chemistry, nanofabrication and circuit integration.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have demonstrated the seamless integration of light emission and charge modulation within single organic semiconductors. Optical waveguides embedded into field-effect channels exhibit electrically tunable propagation, achieving modulation depths exceeding 70 per cent in certain orientations and enabling dynamic optical routing on a chip. Conjugated copolymers designed with short interchain contacts have attained luminescence quantum efficiencies above 15 per cent alongside charge carrier mobilities exceeding 2 cm2 V−1 s−1, effectively reconciling the demands of high brightness with fast transport. In vertical device architectures, the use of doped graphene source electrodes has yielded uniform full-surface emission with luminance on/off ratios around 104 and current efficiencies surpassing those of control light-emitting diodes, highlighting the impact of novel electrode materials on device performance.

Research from all publishers

Outside the portfolio, material innovation and film fabrication have driven significant performance gains. Perfluorophenyl-substituted perylene and anthracene derivatives have produced ambipolar transistors with balanced hole and electron mobilities up to 2.65 cm2 V−1 s−1, photoluminescence quantum yields around 55 per cent and external quantum efficiencies above 2 per cent at high current densities. Organic single-crystal transistors based on cyano-styrene derivatives achieved record external quantum efficiencies of 20.5 per cent by harnessing band-transport mechanisms and exciton confinement. Concurrently, electrochemical deposition of single-crystalline nanorod polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon films has yielded channels with free-carrier mobilities exceeding 30 cm2 V−1 s−1 and exciton diffusion lengths of 45 nm, presenting a scalable route to high-performance emissive layers for next-generation transistor devices.

Organic Light-Emitting Transistor Technologies publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in organic light-emitting transistor technologies across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Organic light-emitting transistor (OLET): A device that merges an organic field-effect transistor with an organic light-emitting diode in a single architecture.

External quantum efficiency (EQE): The proportion of injected charge carriers that result in emitted photons from a light-emitting device.

Ambipolar transport: The capacity of a semiconductor material to conduct both positive (holes) and negative (electrons) charge carriers.

Carrier mobility: A measure of the speed at which charge carriers move through a semiconductor in response to an electric field.

Exciton diffusion length: The average distance travelled by an exciton before recombination occurs.

References

1. High‐Performance Ambipolar and n‐Type Emissive Semiconductors Based on Perfluorophenyl‐Substituted Perylene and Anthracene. Advanced Science (2023).
2. Organic field-effect optical waveguides. Nature Communications (2018).
3. Short contacts between chains enhancing luminescence quantum yields and carrier mobilities in conjugated copolymers. Nature Communications (2019).
4. Full-surface emission of graphene-based vertical-type organic light-emitting transistors with high on/off contrast ratios and enhanced efficiencies. Scientific Reports (2019).
5. Organic single‐crystal light‐emitting transistors with external quantum efficiency over 20%. Aggregate (2023).
6. Electrochemical Deposition of a Single‐Crystalline Nanorod Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Film with Efficient Charge and Exciton Transport. Angewandte Chemie International Edition (2022).