Avalanche upconversion devices (Conference Presentation)

Integrating an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) back-to-back with an organic photodiode (OPD) is a well-known path to upconvert near-infrared light for display purposes. This talk will explore a new, positive feedback regime that arises when the OLED is a tandem device with greater-than-unity quantum efficiency, enabling the OLED emission>>OPD absorption>>OLED emission loop gain to exceed one. The runaway increase in OLED light output that occurs in this situation enables low-level light detection with upconversion gain >10,000 and millisecond dynamic response.