Transparent ultrathin Ag nanomesh electrode fabricated by nanosphere lithography for organic light-emitting devices

We report a transparent ultrathin Ag nanomesh electrode fabricated by nanosphere lithography combined with a dielectric wetting layer, which is simple and cost-effective. Compared with the continuous ultrathin film Ag electrode, the nanomesh electrode exhibits a higher figure of merit (FOM = T10/Rs, T is the transmittance and Rs is the sheet resistance) of 3.01 × 10−3 Ω−1, which is due to the retained high electrical conductivity and nanopores as optical windows. The maximum luminance and current efficiency enhancement of organic light emitting devices (OLEDs) with an ultrathin Ag nanomesh electrode are up to 56.2% and 41.4% compared to that of conventional devices with an ITO anode. It is worth noting that the ultrathin Ag nanomesh electrode has been proved able to resolve the emission intensity roll-off of OLEDs with dual metal electrodes as the enlargement of viewing angle due to the redistribution of the light emission direction derived from strong scattering. More light emission at larger angles is of great value for lighting panel applications.