Tetra-donor pyrazine based thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitters for electroluminescence and amplified spontaneous emission

Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials are expected to address triplet-related losses in electrically driven organic lasers, as the electrically generated triplets in the materials can be converted to radiative singlets through reverse intersystem crossing (RISC). This offers a way to bypass triplet absorption and annihilation in organic semiconductor lasers (OSLs). In this work, two versatile TADF emitters 4tCzPz and 4αCbPz for application in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and OSLs are presented. Both emitters possess moderately high singlet-triplet energy gap, ΔE_ST (≈0.30 eV) and show high photoluminescence quantum yields, Φ_PL, in solution and solid-state and prominent stimulated emission features in solution. Films of 4tCzPz and 4αCbPz doped in mCBP show an amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) threshold of 41.0 and 44.9 µJ/cm², respectively. The OLEDs with 4tCzPz and 4αCbPz emit with peak wavelengths of 492 and 475 nm, respectively, and show corresponding maximum external quantum efficiencies, EQE_max, of 24.6 and 21.3%. The research shows that D-A TADF materials hold significant potential not only as emitters for OLEDs but also in OSLs.