Professor Stephen R. Forrest Departmental Seminar: Very Efficient and Bright White Light from Organic Thin Films

Today, white organic light emitting devices based on electrophosphorescent emission have achieved over 100 lm/W efficiency, and are poised to reach the Department of Energy target of 150 lm/W well before the proposed date of 2015. In this talk, I will review methods for achieving extremely efficient, high color rendering index WOLEDs based on several different approaches of manipulating excitons in the light emitting region, as well as for outcoupling of light. Furthermore, I will discuss the fundamental lifetime limitations of WOLEDs based on analysis of energetically driven molecular decomposition mechanisms. The prospects for the widespread use of WOLEDs for interior lighting applications will be considered in terms of manufacturing processes, device lifetime, total luminous output and other performance parameters will also be addressed.
Professor Steve Forrest is the Vice President for Research, and the William Gould Dow Collegiate Professor of Electrical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and Physics at the University of Michigan. He received his PhD in Physics in 1979 from the University of Michigan. He joined Bell Laboratories where his research included the investigation of photodetectors and photo-receivers for optical communications. During 1985-1992, he was a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Southern California. In 1992, he joined Princeton University where he became the McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Electrical Engineering. In addition to continuing his research on photodetectors, he did ground breaking research on organic thin film semiconductors and their application to light emitting diodes. He served as director of the National Center for Integrated Photonic Technology, and as Director
of Princeton's Center for Photonics and Optoelectronic Materials (POEM). From 1997-2001, he served as the Chair of the Princeton’s Electrical Engineering Department. He is co-founder or founding participant in several companies and has 185 patents.

Professor Forrest is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He has received numerous international awards from professional societies including the Thomas Alva Edison Award, the MRS Medal, the IEEE/LEOS William Streifer Award, the IEEE Daniel Noble Award, and the Jan Rajchman Prize. He is a Fellow of IEEE, OSA and the American Physical Society.