Flexible Television And Computer Screens

Image courtesy of btopenworld.com

Organic light emitting diodes (OLED) are the technology used in making light emitting fabrics used in cell phones and televisions. The fabrication of flexible OLEDs has up to now been held back by the fragility of the brittle indium tin oxide layer that serves as the transparent electrode. But scientists at the Regroupement Quebecois sur les Materiaux de Pointe (RQMP) have found a solution which they reported in the May online issue of Applied Physics Letters.

"Organic light emitting diodes have in recent years emerged as a promising low cost technology for making large area flat panel displays and flexible light emitting fabrics," explains Richard Martel, professor at the Universite de Montreal's chemistry department. "By using carbon nanotubes, a highly conductive and flexible tube shaped carbon nanostructure, thin sheets a few tens of nanometers in thickness can be fabricated following a procedure akin to making paper. These sheets preserve the conductivity and flexibility of the carbon nanotubes and are thin enough to be highly transparent."

By following the fabrication procedure they developed, the scientists succeeded in producing a high-performance OLED on this new electrode material. In their work they also outline the parameters that can be further optimized in order improve the performance of their design. "In addition to their flexibility, carbon nanotube sheets exhibit many properties that make them an attractive alternative to transparent conducting oxides for display and lighting applications," says Carla Aguirre, a researcher at the École Polytechnique affiliated with the Universite de Montreal. "By applying the appropriate chemical therapy they can in principle be also made to replace the metal electrode in order to make OLEDs that emit light from both sides."........