Quantum-dot light-emitting diodes with Fermi-level pinning at the hole-injection/hole-transporting interfaces

Quantum-dot light-emitting diodes(QLEDs)are multilayer electroluminescent devices promising for next-generation display and solid-state-lighting technologies.In the state-of-the-art QLEDs,hole-injection layers(HILs)with high work functions are generally used to achieve efficient hole injection.In these devices,Fermi-level pinning,a phenomenon often observed in heterojunctions involving organic semiconductors,can take place in the hole-injection/hole-transporting interfaces.However,an in-depth understanding of the impacts of Fermi-level pinning at the hole-injection/hole-transporting interfaces on the operation and performance of QLEDs is still lacking.Here,we develop a set of NiOx HILs with controlled work functions of 5.2–5.9 eV to investigate QLEDs with Fermi-level pinning at the hole-injection/hole-transporting interfaces.The results show that despite that Fermi-level pinning induces identical apparent hole-injection barriers,the red QLEDs using HILs with higher work functions show improved efficiency roll-off and better operational stability.Remarkably,the devices using the NiOx HILs with a work function of 5.9 eV demonstrate a peak external quantum efficiency of~18.0%and a long T95 operational lifetime of 8,800 h at 1,000 cd·m^(−2),representing the best-performing QLEDs with inorganic HILs.Our work provides a key design principle for future developments of the hole-injection/hole-transporting interfaces of QLEDs.

On the accurate characterization of quantum-dot light-emitting diodes for display applications

Quantum dot light-emitting diodes(QLEDs)are a class of high-performance solution-processed electroluminescent(EL)devices highly attractive for next-generation display applications.Despite the encouraging advances in the mechanism investigation,material chemistry,and device engineering of QLEDs,the lack of standard protocols for the characterization of QLEDs may cause inaccurate measurements of device parameters and invalid comparison of different devices.Here,we report a comprehensive study on the characterizations of QLEDs using various methods.We show that the emission non-uniformity across the active area,nonLambertian angular distributions of EL intensity,and discrepancies in the adopted spectral luminous efficiency functions could introduce significant errors in the device efficiency.Larger errors in the operational-lifetime measurements may arise from the inaccurate determination of the initial luminance and inconsistent methods for analyzing the luminance-decay curves.Finally,we suggest a set of recommended practices and a checklist for device characterizations,aiming to help the researchers in the QLED field to achieve accurate and reliable measurements.