Birefringence-dependent linearly-polarized emission in a liquid crystalline organic light emitting polymer

We investigated the linearly polarized emission of uniformly aligned poly(9,9-di-n-octylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl)-alt-(benzo[2,1,3]thia-diazol-4,8-diyl) (F8BT) with a liquid crystalline phase on a rubbed alignment layer. The polarization ratio, defined by the ratio of luminous intensities polarized parallel and perpendicular to the rubbed direction, gradually decreased with increasing thickness of the F8BT film. In the photoluminescence (PL) process, the polarized light is emitted throughout the whole F8BT film, while in the electroluminescence (EL) process, the polarized light is emitted at a certain region within the F8BT film. The thickness-dependent polarization ratios in both PL and EL processes were successfully described based on a simple model wherein the mean optical birefringence was expressed as a function of the thickness of the F8BT film.