Professor Forrest and a graduate student in his lab, Marc Baldo, collaborated with University of Southern California chemistry professor Mark Thompson. These are thin films of molecules that can be induced to emit light. They have advantages over liquid crystal displays because they are brighter, use less electricity, offer potentially truer colors, and allow smaller pixels. OLEDs can be made from two types of molecules, fluorescent and phosphorescent. Fluorescence offers variety because scientists have identified more fluorescent molecules with suitable properties.
Phosphorescence is much more efficient in terms of energy consumption.
This new finding gives developers of OLED devices the best of both materials. By adding small quantities of energy-efficient phosphorescent molecules to fluorescent materials, the final products emitted fluorescent light in a highly efficient manner. Fluorescent materials are inefficient because only singlets produce light and the three triplets are wasted. Because they use all four excited states, these phosphorescent materials are four times more efficient than fluorescent materials. The researchers then sought to bring the same efficiency to fluorescent materials.