Improved device reliability in organic light emitting devices by controlling the etching of indium zinc oxide anode

A controllable etching process for indium zinc oxide （IZO） films was developed by using a weak etchant of oxalic acid with a slow etching ratio. With controllable etching time and temperature, a patterned IZO electrode with smoothed surface morphology and slope edge was achieved. For the practical application in organic light emitting devices （OLEDs）, a sup- pression of the leak current in the current-voltage characteristics of OLEDs was observed. It resulted in a 1.6 times longer half lifetime in the IZO-based OLEDs compared to that using an indium tin oxide （ITO） anode etched by a conventional strong etchant of aqua regia.

White Organic Light Emitting Devices Based on Multiple Emissive Nanolayers

In this paper,a white organic light-emitting device(WOLEDs) with multiple-emissive-layer structure has been fabricated.The device has a simple structure of indium tin oxide(ITO)/NPB(20 nm)//DPVBi(20 nm)/CDBP:x Ir(btp)2acac(10 nm)/Alq3(25 nm)/BCP(5 nm)/Cs F(1 nm)/Al(150 nm)(x= 0.15,2.5 and 3.0 wt%),where NPB and BCP are used as the hole-injecting layer,electron transporting and hole blocking layer,respectively.White light emission was realized in an OLED with 2.5% Ir(btp)2acac doping concentration.The device exhibits peak efficiency of 1.93 cd/A at 9 V and maximum brightness of 7005 cd/m^2 at 14 V.The Commission International de I'Eclairage(CIE)(1931) coordinates of white emission are well within the white zone,which moves from(0.35,0.33) to(0.26,0.30) when the applied voltage is varied from 5 V to 14 V.

Improving efficiency of organic light-emitting devices by optimizing the LiF interlayer in the hole transport layer

The efficiency of organic light-emitting devices （OLEDs） based on N,N＇-bis（1-naphthyl）-N,N＇-diphenyl-N,1＇- biphenyl-4,4＇-diamine （NPB） （the hole transport layer） and tris（8-hydroxyquinoline） aluminum （Alq3） （both emission and electron transport layers） is improved remarkably by inserting a LiF interlayer into the hole transport layer. This thin LiF interlayer can effectively influence electrical performance and significantly improve the current efficiency of the device. A device with an optimum LiF layer thickness at the optimum position in NPB exhibits a maximum current efficiency of 5.96 cd/A at 215.79 mA/cm2, which is about 86% higher than that of an ordinary device （without a LiF interlayer, 3.2 cd/A）. An explanation can be put forward that LiF in the NPB layer can block holes and balance the recombination of holes and electrons. The results may provide some valuable references for improving OLED current efficiency.

Enhancement of Frster energy transfer from thermally activated delayed fluorophores layer to ultrathin phosphor layer for high color stability in non-doped hybrid white organic light-emitting devices

Fluorescence/phosphorescence hybrid white organic light-emitting devices（WOLEDs） based on double emitting layers（EMLs） with high color stability are fabricated.The simplified EMLs consist of a non-doped blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence（TADF） layer using 9,9-dimethyl-9,10-dihydroacridine-diphenylsulfone（DMAC-DPS） and an ultrathin non-doped yellow phosphorescence layer employing bis[2-（4-tertbutylphenyl）benzothiazolato-N,C2＇]iridium（acetylacetonate）（（tbt）_2Ir（acac））.Two kinds of materials of 4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline（Bphen） and 1,3,5-tris（2-Nphenylbenzimidazolyl） benzene（TPBi） are selected as the electron transporting layer（ETL）,and the thickness of yellow EML is adjusted to optimize device performance.The device based on a 0.3-nm-thick yellow EML and Bphen exhibits high color stability with a slight Commission International de l＇Eclairage（CIE） coordinates variation of（0.017,0.009） at a luminance ranging from 52 cd/m^2 to 6998 cd/m^2.The TPBi-based device yields a high efficiency with a maximum external quantum efficiency（EQE）,current efficiency,and power efficiency of 10%,21.1 cd/A,and 21.3 lm/W,respectively.The ultrathin yellow EML suppresses hole trapping and short-radius Dexter energy transfer,so that Forster energy transfer（FRET）from DMAC-DPS to（tbt）_2Ir（acac） is dominant,which is beneficial to keep the color stable.The employment of TPBi with higher triplet excited state effectively alleviates the triplet exciton quenching by ETL to improve device efficiency.

Luminescent Enhancement of Heterostructure Organic Light-Emitting Devices Based on Aluminum Quinolines

High performance organic light-emitting devices （OLEDs） have been investigated by using fluorescent bis （2-methyl-8-quinolinolato）（para-phenylphenolato）aluminum（BAlq） as an emissive layer on the performance of multicolor devices consisting of N, N＇-bis-（1-naphthyl）-N,N＇diphenyl- 1,1＇-biphenyl-4,4＇- diamine （NPB） as hole transport layer. The results show that the performance of heterostructure blue light-emitting device composed of 8-hydroxyquinoline aluminum （Alq3） as an electron transport layer has been dramatically enhanced. In the case of high performance heterostructure devices, the electroluminescent spectra has been perceived to vary strongly with the thickness of the organic layers due to the different recombination region, which indicates that various color devices composed of identical components could be implemented by changing the film thickness of different functional layers.

Lowering the driving voltage and improving the luminance of blue fluorescent organic light-emitting devices by thermal annealing a hole injection layer of pentacene

We chose pentacene as a hole injection layer（HIL） to fabricate the high performance blue fluorescent organic lightemitting devices（OLEDs）. We found that the carrier mobility of the pentacene thin films could be efficiently improved after a critical annealing at temperature 120℃. Then we performed the tests of scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and Kelvin probe to explore the effect of annealing on the pentacene films. The pentacene film exhibited a more crystalline form with better continuities and smoothness after annealing. The optimal device with 120℃ annealed pentacene film and n-doped electron transport layer（ETL） presents a low turn-on voltage of 2.6 V and a highest luminance of 134800 cd/m^2 at 12 V, which are reduced by 26% and improved by 50% compared with those of the control device.

Dependence of Performance of Organic Light-emitting Devices on Sheet Resistance of Indium-tin-oxide Anodes

The dependence of the performance of organic light-emitting devices（OLEDs） on the sheet resistance of indiumtin-oxide（ITO） anodes was investigated by measuring the steady state current density brightness voltage characteristics and the electroluminescent spectra. The device with a higher sheet resistance anode shows a lower current density, a lower brightness level, and a higher operation voltage. The electroluminescence（EL） efficiencies of the devices with the same structure but different ITO anodes show more complicated differences. Furthermore, the shift of the light-emitting zone toward the anode was found when an anode with a higher sheet resistance was used. These performance differences are discussed and attributed to the reduction of hole injection and the increase in voltage drop over ITO anode with the increase in sheet resistance.

Numerical model of multilayer organic light-emitting devices

A numerical model of multilayer organic light-emitting devices is presented in this article. This model is based on the drift-diffusion equations which include charge injection, transport, space charge effects, trapping, heterojunction interface and recombination process. The device structure in the simulation is ITO/CuPc （20 nm）/NPD （40 nm）/Alq3 （60 nm）/LiF/Al. There are two heterojunctions which should be dealt with in the simulation. The I-V characteristics, carrier distribution and recombination rate of a device are calculated. The simulation results and measured data are in good agreement.

Negative capacitance in doped bi-layer organic light-emitting devices

This paper reports that the doped bi-layer organic light-emitting devices are fabricated by doping in different regions of the light-emitting layer, the admittance and luminance spectra to characterize the capacitance and luminance of the device are measured. Negative capacitance （NC） appeared at low frequencies when the doped devices are biased with high voltages. The measured phase difference between AC voltage applied across the device and AC current flowing through the device show that the device is inductive when NC appears.

STUDY OF DEGRADATION MECHANISM AND PACKAGING OF ORGANIC LIGHT EMITTING DEVICES

Organic Light Emitting Devices (OLED) have attracted much attention recently, for their applications in futureFlat Panel Displays and lighting products. However, their fast degradation remained a major obstacle to theircommercialization. Here we present a brief summary of our studies on both extrinsic and intrinsic causes for the fastdegradation of OLEDs. In particular, we focus on the origin of the dark spots by 'rebuilding' cathodes, which confirms thatthe growth of dark spots occurs primarily due to cathode delamination. In the meantime, we recapture the findings from thesearch for suitable OLED packaging materials, in particular polymer composites, which provide both heat dissipation andmoisture resistance, in addition to electrical insulation.

Improvement of electron injection of organic light-emitting devices by inserting a thin aluminum layer into cesium carbonate injection layer

We investigate the electron injection effect of inserting a thin aluminum（Al） layer into cesium carbonate（Cs2CO3）injection layer. Two groups of organic light-emitting devices（OLEDs） are fabricated. For the first group of devices based on Alq3, we insert a thin Al layer of different thickness into Cs2CO3 injection layer, and the device＇s maximum current efficiency of 6.5 cd/A is obtained when the thickness of the thin Al layer is 0.4 nm. However, when the thickness of Al layer is 0.8 nm, the capacity of electron injection is the strongest. To validate the universality of this approach, then we fabricate another group of devices based on another blue emitting material. The maximum current efficiency of the device without and with a thin Al layer is 4.51 cd/A and 4.84 cd/A, respectively. Inserting a thin Al layer of an appropriate thickness into Cs2CO3 layer can result in the reduction of electron injection barrier, enhancement of the electron injection, and improvement of the performance of OLEDs. This can be attributed to the mechanism that thermally evaporated Cs2CO3 decomposes into cesium oxides, the thin Al layer reacts with cesium oxides to form Al–O–Cs complex, and the amount of the Al–O–Cs complex can be controlled by adjusting the thickness of the thin Al layer.

High-contrast top-emitting organic light-emitting devices

In this paper we report on a high-contrast top-emitting organic light-emitting device utilizing a moderate-reflection contrast-enhancement stack and a high refractive index anti-reflection layer.The contrast-enhancement stack consists of a thin metal anode layer,a dielectric bilayer,and a thick metal underlayer.The resulting device,with the optimized contrast-enhancement stack thicknesses of Ni（30 nm）/MgF 2（62 nm）/ZnS（16 nm）/Ni（20 nm） and the 25-nm-thick ZnS anti-reflection layer,achieves a luminous reflectance of 4.01% in the visible region and a maximum current efficiency of 0.99 cd/A（at 62.3 mA/cm 2） together with a very stable chromaticity.The contrast ratio reaches 561：1 at an on-state brightness of 1000 cd/m^2 under an ambient illumination of 140 lx.In addition,the anti-reflection layer can also enhance the transmissivity of the cathode and improve light out-coupling by the effective restraint of microcavity effects.

Reduction of the Optical Loss in the Multi-Cathode Structure Organic Light Emitting Device Using a Long Range Surface Plasmon

Light extraction efficiency of organic light-emitting devices has improved by using a nano-sized multi-cathode structure consisting of semi-transparent metal and an optical compensation layer. From the detail optical calculation based on the multi-scale analysis including near-field optics, it was found that surface plasmon loss in the metal cathode is suppressed to less than 10% due to long range and short range surface plasmon coupling between both sides of metal cathode. Not less than 90% of optical power in the dipole emission can be successfully utilized as propagation light. Light extraction efficiency in a phosphorescent device has improved about twice by using the multi-cathode structure.

Efficiency of a blue organic light-emitting diode enhanced by inserting charge control layers into the emission region

We demonstrate high current efficiency of a blue fluorescent organic light-emitting diode （OLED） by using the charge control layers （CCLs） based on Alq3 . The CCLs that are inserted into the emitting layers （EMLs） could impede the hole injection and facilitate the electron transport, which can improve the carrier balance and further expand the exciton generation region. The maximal current efficiency of the optimal device is 5.89 cd/A at 1.81 mA/cm2 , which is about 2.19 times higher than that of the control device （CD） without the CCL, and the maximal luminance is 19.660 cd/m2 at 12V. The device shows a good color stability though the green light emitting material Alq3 is introduced as the CCL in the EML, but it has a poor lifetime due to the formation of cationic Alq3 species.

Tandem organic light-emitting diode with a molybdenum tri-oxide thin film interconnector layer

A 10-nm-thick molybdenum tri-oxide（MoO3） thin film was used as the interconnector layer in tandem organic lightemitting devices（OLEDs）.The tandem OLEDs with two identical emissive units consisting of N,N-bis（naphthalen-1-yl）N,N-bis（phenyl）-benzidine（NPB） /tris（8-hydroxyquinoline） aluminum（Alq3） exhibited current efficiency-current density characteristics superior to the conventional single-unit devices.At 20 mA/cm2,the current efficiency of the tandem OLEDs using the interconnector layers of MoO3 thin film was about 4.0 cd/A,which is about twice that of the corresponding conventional single-unit device（1.8cd/A）.The tandem OLED showed a higher power efficiency than the conventional single-unit device for luminance over 1200cd/m2.The experimental results demonstrated that a MoO3 thin film with a proper thickness can be used as an effective interconnector layer in tandem OLEDs.Such an interconnector layer can be easily fabricated by simple thermal evaporation,greatly simplifying the device processing and fabrication processes required by previously reported interconnector layers.A possible explanation was proposed for the carrier generation of the MoO3 interconnector layer.

Low driving voltage in an organic light-emitting diode using MoO_3/NPB multiple quantum well structure in a hole transport layer

The driving voltage of an organic light-emitting diode（OLED） is lowered by employing molybdenum trioxide（MoO3）/N,N＇-bis（naphthalene-1-yl）-N,N＇-bis（phe-nyl）-benzidine（NPB） multiple quantum well（MQW） structure in the hole transport layer.For the device with double quantum well（DQW） structure of ITO/[MoO3（2.5 nm）/NPB（20 nm）]2/Alq3（50 nm）/LiF（0.8 nm）/Al（120 nm）],the turn-on voltage is reduced to 2.8 V,which is lowered by 0.4 V compared with that of the control device（without MQW structures）,and the driving voltage is 5.6 V,which is reduced by 1 V compared with that of the control device at the 1000 cd/m2.In this work,the enhancement of the injection and transport ability for holes could reduce the driving voltage for the device with MQW structure,which is attributed not only to the reduced energy barrier between ITO and NPB,but also to the forming charge transfer complex between MoO3 and NPB induced by the interfacial doping effect of MoO3.

Polarized red, green, and blue light emitting diodes fabricated with identical device configuration using rubbed PEDOT:PSS as alignment layer

Polarized red, green, and blue light emitting diodes(LEDs) are successfully fabricated using polyfluorene and its derivatives, namely, poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene)(PFO), poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene-co-benzothiadiazole)(F8BT),and poly(triphenylamine-co-4,7-di(thiophen-2-yl)benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole-co-benzo[c]thiadiazole-co-9,9-dioctyl-9 Hfluorene)(Red F).Rubbed hole transport layer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrene sulfonate)(PEDOT:PSS)is employed in the devices as the alignment layer to achieve fully monodomain alignment in all polymer layers.Red F is blended with F8BT to realize the polarized electroluminescence of red light(dichroic ratio ~3.3), despite having no liquid crystallinity itself.Comparing PFO/F8BT blend to F8BT, higher efficiency of polarized emission is found due to the energy transfer.All the polarized LEDs exhibit pronounced dichroism and efficient polarized emission compared to the non-alignment regular devices.

Optimization of a poly (p-phenylene benzobisoxazole)-based light-emitting device with a complex cathode structure

In this work, we report the preparation of a series of electroluminescent （EL） devices based on a high-performance polymer, poly（p-phenylene benzobisoxazole） （PBO）, and their optoelectronic properties, which have been rarely explored. The device structure is optimised using a complex cathode structure of tris-（8-hydoxyquinoline） aluminium （Alq3）/LiF/Al. By tuning the thickness of the Alq3 layer, we improve the device efficiency dramatically in an optimized condition. Further analysis reveals that the Alq3 layer in the complex cathode structure acts as a hole blocker in addition to its electron-injection role. A green light emission with a maximum brightness of 8.7×103 cd/m2 and a moderate current efficiency of 4.8 cd/A is obtained. These values are the highest ever reported for PBO devices. The high operational stability demonstrated by the present device makes it a promising tool for display and lighting applications. A new material is added to the selection of polymers used in this field up to now.

Rational Design of Star-shaped Molecules with Benzene Core and Naphthalimide Derivatives End Groups as Organic Light-emitting Materials

A series of star-shaped molecules with benzene core and naphthalimides derivatives end groups have been designed to explore their optical,electronic,and charge transport properties as charge transport and/or luminescent materials for organic light-emitting diodes（OLEDs）. The frontier molecular orbitals（FMOs） analysis has turned out that the vertical electronic transitions of absorption and emission are characterized as intramolecular charge transfer（ICT）. The calculated results show that the optical and electronic properties of star-shaped molecules are affected by the substituent groups in N-position of 1,8-naphthalimide ring. Our results suggest that star-shaped molecules with n-butyl（1）,benzene（2）,thiophene（3）,thiophene S？,S？-dioxide（4）,benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole（5）,and 2,7a-dihydrobenzo[d]thiazole（6） fragments are expected to be promising candidates for luminescent and electron transport materials for OLEDs. This study should be helpful in further theoretical investigations on such kind of systems and also to the experimental study for charge transport and/or luminescent materials for OLEDs.

The Effect of Recombination Zone Positon on the Color Temperature Performance in the Color-Tunable White Organic Light-Emitting Diode

Using a color-tunable organic light-emitting diode (CT-OLED) can accord with the circadian cycle of humans and realize healthy lighting. The variation range of the correlated color temperature (CCT) is an important parameter to measure the performance of CT-OLEDs. In this paper, the effect of changing the utilization of phosphorescent materials and the position of the recombination zone (RZ) in the device are investigated by changing the thickness of the emissive layer (EML) and the doping ratio of the host and guest materials. The results show that reducing the red phosphorescent material and improving the blue phosphorescent material can affect the change direction of CCT, but it is not enough to expand the span of CCT (ΔCCT). It is more conducive to improving ΔCCT by more reasonable regulation of the position of the main RZ in EML and the energy transfer from the blue sub-EML to the red sub-EML. Device D obtains the best electro-optic and spectral characteristics, in which the maximum ΔCCT is 5746 K (2661 - 8407 K) as the voltage changes from 3.75 V to 9.75 V, the maximum current efficiency and luminance reach 18.34 cd·A-1 and 12,100 cd·m-2, respectively.