A mixed-source thermal evaporation method was used to fabricate organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) with uniformly mixed (UM), continuously graded mixed (CGM) and step-wise graded, mixed (SGM) light-emitting layers. N,N'-Bis(3-methylphenyl)-N, N'-diphenylbenzidine and Tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum were used, respectively, as the hole-and electron-transport materials. As compared to the conventional, heterojunction OLED, the maximum brightness of UM-, CGM- and SGM-OLEDs without charge injection layers were improved by 2.2, 3.8 and 2.1 times, respectively, while the maximum power efficiencies improved by 1.5, 3.2 and 1.9 times. These improvements were discussed in terms of more distributed recombination zone and removal of interfacial barrier. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.