Visible light communication using thermally activated delayed fluorescent OLEDs

Liam G. King; Behnaz Majlesein; Isaac N. O. Osahon; Kou Yoshida; Harold Haas; Ifor D. W. Samuel

doi:10.1016/j.device.2025.100835

Visible light communication using thermally activated delayed fluorescent OLEDs

Liam G. King, Behnaz Majlesein, Isaac N. O. Osahon, Kou Yoshida, Harold Haas^*, Ifor D. W. Samuel^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Thermally activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) materials are appealing due to their ability to make efficient organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). In this study, we develop TADF OLEDs for visible light communication (VLC) and show that devices using the TADF emitter 1,2,3,5-tetrakis(carbazol-9-yl)-4,6-dicyanobenzene (4CzIPN) can achieve a data rate of 54 Mbps over a 2 m VLC link. To enhance the bandwidth and data rate, we then developed TADF-sensitized fluorescent (hyperfluorescent) OLEDs. Using the fluorescent material 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylbisbenz[5,6]indeno[1,2,3-cd:1′,2′,3′-lm]perylene (DBP) as the terminal emitter, we achieve a data rate of 102 Mbps, which is much higher than the 10 Mbps reported for a phosphorescent OLED. Our results show that TADF and hyperfluorescent OLEDs are suitable for optical wireless communication, as the delayed fluorescence was found not to limit the data rate. This is particularly relevant for VLC applications requiring higher efficiency than fluorescent OLEDs can provide, such as lighting and displays.

Original language	English
Article number	100835
Number of pages	8
Journal	Device
Volume	3
Issue number	9
Early online date	30 Jun 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.device.2025.100835
Publication status	Published - 19 Sept 2025

Keywords

Hyperfluorescence
LiFi
Internet of Things
Optical wireless communications
Organic light-emitting diode

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King_2025_Device_Visible-light-communication-TADF-OLEDs_CC
© 2025 The Authors. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Final published version, 2.91 MBLicence: CC BY

EPSRC-JSPS Core-to-core Grant: EPSRC-JSPS Core-to-Core Grant Application
Samuel, I. (PI)
1/08/18 → 31/07/23
Project: Standard

Visible Light Communication Using Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescent OLEDs (dataset)
King, L. G. (Creator), Majlesein, B. (Creator), Osahon, I. N. O. (Creator), Yoshida, K. (Creator), Haas, H. (Creator) & Samuel, I. D. W. (Creator), University of St Andrews, 30 Jun 2025
DOI: 10.17630/c9ab9e4b-2e85-4228-a2df-d4b9e14e9c08
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@article{2be797e5c3044a7dbf561769f802a3a0,

title = "Visible light communication using thermally activated delayed fluorescent OLEDs",

abstract = "Thermally activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) materials are appealing due to their ability to make efficient organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). In this study, we develop TADF OLEDs for visible light communication (VLC) and show that devices using the TADF emitter 1,2,3,5-tetrakis(carbazol-9-yl)-4,6-dicyanobenzene (4CzIPN) can achieve a data rate of 54 Mbps over a 2 m VLC link. To enhance the bandwidth and data rate, we then developed TADF-sensitized fluorescent (hyperfluorescent) OLEDs. Using the fluorescent material 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylbisbenz[5,6]indeno[1,2,3-cd:1′,2′,3′-lm]perylene (DBP) as the terminal emitter, we achieve a data rate of 102 Mbps, which is much higher than the 10 Mbps reported for a phosphorescent OLED. Our results show that TADF and hyperfluorescent OLEDs are suitable for optical wireless communication, as the delayed fluorescence was found not to limit the data rate. This is particularly relevant for VLC applications requiring higher efficiency than fluorescent OLEDs can provide, such as lighting and displays.",

keywords = "Hyperfluorescence, LiFi, Internet of Things, Optical wireless communications, Organic light-emitting diode",

author = "King, {Liam G.} and Behnaz Majlesein and Osahon, {Isaac N. O.} and Kou Yoshida and Harold Haas and Samuel, {Ifor D. W.}",

note = "Funding: The authors are grateful to the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council for support through grants EP/R035164/1 and EP/Y037243/1.",

year = "2025",

month = sep,

day = "19",

doi = "10.1016/j.device.2025.100835",

language = "English",

volume = "3",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Visible light communication using thermally activated delayed fluorescent OLEDs

AU - King, Liam G.

AU - Majlesein, Behnaz

AU - Osahon, Isaac N. O.

AU - Yoshida, Kou

AU - Haas, Harold

AU - Samuel, Ifor D. W.

N1 - Funding: The authors are grateful to the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council for support through grants EP/R035164/1 and EP/Y037243/1.

PY - 2025/9/19

Y1 - 2025/9/19

N2 - Thermally activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) materials are appealing due to their ability to make efficient organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). In this study, we develop TADF OLEDs for visible light communication (VLC) and show that devices using the TADF emitter 1,2,3,5-tetrakis(carbazol-9-yl)-4,6-dicyanobenzene (4CzIPN) can achieve a data rate of 54 Mbps over a 2 m VLC link. To enhance the bandwidth and data rate, we then developed TADF-sensitized fluorescent (hyperfluorescent) OLEDs. Using the fluorescent material 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylbisbenz[5,6]indeno[1,2,3-cd:1′,2′,3′-lm]perylene (DBP) as the terminal emitter, we achieve a data rate of 102 Mbps, which is much higher than the 10 Mbps reported for a phosphorescent OLED. Our results show that TADF and hyperfluorescent OLEDs are suitable for optical wireless communication, as the delayed fluorescence was found not to limit the data rate. This is particularly relevant for VLC applications requiring higher efficiency than fluorescent OLEDs can provide, such as lighting and displays.

AB - Thermally activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) materials are appealing due to their ability to make efficient organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). In this study, we develop TADF OLEDs for visible light communication (VLC) and show that devices using the TADF emitter 1,2,3,5-tetrakis(carbazol-9-yl)-4,6-dicyanobenzene (4CzIPN) can achieve a data rate of 54 Mbps over a 2 m VLC link. To enhance the bandwidth and data rate, we then developed TADF-sensitized fluorescent (hyperfluorescent) OLEDs. Using the fluorescent material 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylbisbenz[5,6]indeno[1,2,3-cd:1′,2′,3′-lm]perylene (DBP) as the terminal emitter, we achieve a data rate of 102 Mbps, which is much higher than the 10 Mbps reported for a phosphorescent OLED. Our results show that TADF and hyperfluorescent OLEDs are suitable for optical wireless communication, as the delayed fluorescence was found not to limit the data rate. This is particularly relevant for VLC applications requiring higher efficiency than fluorescent OLEDs can provide, such as lighting and displays.

KW - Hyperfluorescence

KW - LiFi

KW - Internet of Things

KW - Optical wireless communications

KW - Organic light-emitting diode

U2 - 10.1016/j.device.2025.100835

DO - 10.1016/j.device.2025.100835

M3 - Article

SN - 2666-9986

VL - 3

JO - Device

JF - Device

IS - 9

M1 - 100835

ER -

Visible light communication using thermally activated delayed fluorescent OLEDs

Abstract

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Projects

EPSRC-JSPS Core-to-core Grant: EPSRC-JSPS Core-to-Core Grant Application

Datasets

Visible Light Communication Using Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescent OLEDs (dataset)

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