High performance Europium(III) based emitters for electroluminescence: Synthesis,crystal structures,photophysical and electroluminescent properties

In this paper, we synthesize two 1,10-phenanline derived ligands, along with their corresponding Eu(III) complexes. Their crystal structures, photophysical characteristics, including UV–vis absorption, photoluminescence (PL), quantum yields, excited state lifetimes, and thermal stability, are discussed in detail. In addition, we also investigate their potential application in electroluminescence (EL) devices. Experimental data suggest that the two Eu(III) complexes are promising emitters for EL application: pure red emissions with a maximum EL brightness of 850 cd/m² and a maximum current efficiency of 3.67 cd/A are achieved. It is found that the elimination of active hydrogen in ligand favors most PL and EL factors, including PL quantum efficiency, thermal stability, and current efficiency, but not for maximum EL brightness. An emitter with shorter excited state lifetime leads to a higher EL brightness, regardless of its relatively lower device efficiency.     

Highly efficient and stable organic light-emitting diode by balancing drift current of charge

Highly efficient and stable OLED device in which hole-drift current and electron-drift current are balanced was fabricated. Drift current characteristics according to the thickness of organic layer were examined using the device with ITO/m-MTDATA/NPB/Al structure that can only move the hole and the device with Al/LiF/Alq₃/LiF/Al structure that can only move the electron. Using the result of such examination, green device with balanced drift current was produced. Device with the structure of m-MTDATA (80 nm)/NPB (20 nm)/C-545T (3%) doped Alq₃ (5 nm)/Alq₃ (59 nm)/LiF (1 nm)/Al (200 nm) showed color purity of (0.309, 0.643) and high efficiency of 7.0 lm/W (14.4 cd/A). Most of light emission was observed inside the green emitting layer. Through the result of EL spectrum for the device also including red emitting layer, same result could be obtained. The device with balanced drift current also showed half life-time of 175 h for initial luminance of 3000 cd/m², which is more stable in comparison to the device without balanced drift current.     

Improving the stability of organic light-emitting devices using a solution-processed hole-injecting layer

The stability of organic light-emitting devices with a spin-coated film of 4,4′,4″-tris(3-methylphenylphenylamino)triphenylamine (m-MTDATA) as hole-injection layer (HIL) was investigated. The lifetime of this device is increased to 40 900 h (with an initial luminance of 100 cd/m²), which is 2.7 times as large as that of the control device with a vacuum-deposited film of m-MTDATA as HIL. A significant feature with this method is that the performance and the operational stability of the device with spin-coated HIL are little attenuated by the rough substrate coated by the indium-tin oxide film. The surface morphology of the solution-processed m-MTDATA thin film is quite even and uniform, and it acts as a smoothing layer in the device, which leads to the stability enhancement of the device.     

High-efficiency organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with a mixed layer structure

Improved performance of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) as obtained by a mixed layer was investigated. The OLEDs with a mixed layer which were composed of N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(1-napthyl-phenyl)-1,1′-biphenyl-4,4′-diamine (NPB), tris-(8-hydroxyquinolato) aluminum (Alq₃) and 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-t-butyl-6-(1,1,7,7-tetramethyljulolidyl-9-enyl)-4H-pyran (DCJTB) showed the highest brightness and efficiency, which reached 19048 cd/m² at 17 V and 4.3 cd/A at 10 mA/cm², respectively. The turn-on voltage of the device is 2.6 V. Its Commission Internationale del’Eclairage (CIE) coordinate is (0.497, 0.456) at 17 V, and the CIE coordinates of the device are largely insensitive to the driving voltages, which depicts stabilized yellow color.     

Synthesis and characterization of PPV-based light-emitting copolymer with alkylsilylphenyloxy pendant group for light-emitting diode applications

A novel light-emitting copolymer with high brightness and luminance efficiency was synthesized using the Gilch polymerization method, and its electro-optical properties were investigated. A polymer light-emitting diode (PLED) was fabricated in ITO/PEDOT/light-emitting copolymer/Ca/Al configuration. The turn-on voltage of the PLED was about 5.0 V with maximum brightness and luminance efficiency up to 1420 cd/m² at 16.2 V and 0.5 cd/A at 6.8 V, respectively.     

Synthesis and electroluminescent characterization of a symmetric starburst orange-red light material

A new symmetric starburst orange-red light material, tris(4-(2-(N-butyl-1,8-naphthalimide)ethynyl)phenyl)amine (TNGT), was designed and synthesized. It shows a high fluorescence quantum yield and a slight concentration-quenching effect. A high brightness (6600 cd/m²) and a high current efficiency [4.57 cd/A (at 420 cd/m²)] with CIE (0.59, 0.40) were achieved at a relatively high doping concentration (20 wt%) in a TNGT-based OLED.     

The effect of junction temperature on the optoelectrical properties of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well light-emitting diodes

Thermal effects on the optoelectrical characteristics of green InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well (MQW) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have been investigated in detail for a broad temperature range, from 30 °C to 100 °C. The current-dependent electroluminescence (EL) spectra, current–voltage (I–V) curves and luminescence intensity–current (L–I) characteristics of green InGaN/GaN MQW LEDs have been measured to characterize the thermal-related effects on the optoelectrical properties of the InGaN/GaN MQW LEDs. The experimental results show that both the forward voltages decreased with a slope of ?3.7 mV/K and the emission peak wavelength increased with a slope of +0.02 nm/K with increasing temperature, indicating a change in the contact resistance between the metal and GaN layers and the existence of a band gap shrinkage effect. The junction temperature estimated from the forward voltage and the emission peak shift varied from 25.6 to 14.5 °C and from 22.4 to 35.6 °C, respectively. At the same time, the carrier temperature decreased from 371.2 to 348.1 °C as estimated from the slope of high-energy side of the emission spectra. With increasing injection current, there was found to be a strong current-dependent blueshift of ?0.15 nm/mA in the emission peak wavelength of the EL spectra. This could be attributed to not only the stronger band-filling effect but also the enhanced quantum confinement effect that resulted from the piezoelectric polarization and spontaneous polarization in InGaN/GaN heterostructures. We also demonstrate a helpful and easy way to measure and calculate the junction temperature of InGaN/GaN MQW LEDs.     

Tetraalkoxylated-PPV derivative: An efficient and pure green electroluminescent polymer with good solution processability

A new solution-processable tetraalkoxy-substituted poly(1,4-phenylenevinylene) derivative, poly{[2-(3′,7′-dimethyloctyloxy)-3,5,6-trimethoxy]-1,4-phenylenevinylene} (TALK-PPV), was synthesized through a dehydrohalogenation polymerization route, and its light-emitting properties were investigated. The TALK-PPV showed highly blue-shifted UV–visible absorption and PL emission spectra compared to the dialkoxy-substituted PPV derivatives. This is because of the disturbance to the π-conjugation caused by a steric hindered structure. The TALK-PPV thin film exhibited an absorption peak at 446 nm, with an onset at 515 nm. Its PL emission maximum was at 554 nm. Cyclic voltammetric analysis showed the HOMO and LUMO energy levels of the TALK-PPV to be 5.77 and 3.36 eV, respectively. Light-emitting devices were fabricated with an ITO (indium-tin oxide)/PEDOT/polymer/Ca/Al configuration. The TALK-PPV component leads to pure green light emission with a CIE 1931 chromaticity of (0.20, 0.74) at 100 cd/m² brightness, which is very close to the standard green (0.21, 0.71) demanded by the NTSC (National Television System Committee). The maximum brightness of this device was 24,900 cd/m² with an efficiency of 1.45 cd/A.     

Efficient red light phosphorescence emission in simple bi-layered structure organic devices with fluorescent host-phosphorescent guest system

Highly efficient red phosphorescent devices comprising a simple bi-layered structure using tris(1-phenylisoquinoline)iridium (Ir(piq)₃) doped in a narrow band-gap fluorescent host material, bis(10-hydroxybenzo [h] quinolinato)beryllium complex (Bebq₂) are reported. The driving voltage to reach 1000 cd/m² is 3.5 V in Bebq₂:Ir(piq)₃ red phosphorescent device. With a dopant concentration of as low as 4%, the current and power efficiency values of 8.41 cd/A and 7.34 lm/W are obtained in this PHOLEDs, respectively. External quantum efficiency (EQE) of 14.5% is noticed in this red phosphorescent device, promising to high brightness applications.     

The effect of Ag layer thickness on the properties of WO3/Ag/MoO3 multilayer films as anode in organic light emitting diodes

Transparent conductive WO₃/Ag/MoO₃ (WAM) multilayer electrodes were fabricated by thermal evaporation and the effects of Ag layer thickness on the optoelectronic and structural properties of multilayer electrode as anode in organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) were investigated using different analytical methods. For Ag layers with thickness varying between 5 and 20 nm, the best WAM performances, high optical transmittance (81.7%, at around 550 nm), and low electrical sheet resistance (9.75 Ω/cm²) were obtained for 15 nm thickness. Also, the WAM structure with 15 nm of Ag layer thickness has a very smooth surface with an RMS roughness of 0.37 nm, which is suitable for use as transparent conductive anode in OLEDs. The current density?voltage?luminance (J?V?L) characteristics measurement shows that the current density of WAM/PEDOT:PSS/TPD/Alq₃/LiF/Al organic diode increases with the increase in thickness of Ag and WO₃/Ag (15 nm)/MoO₃ device exhibits a higher luminance intensity at lower voltage than ITO/PEDOT:PSS/TPD/Alq₃/LiF/Al control device. Furthermore, this device shows the highest power efficiency (0.31 lm/W) and current efficiency (1.2 cd/A) at the current density of 20 mA/cm², which is improved 58% and 41% compared with those of the ITO-based device, respectively. The lifetime of the WO₃/Ag (15 nm)/MoO₃ device was measured to be 50 h at an initial luminance of 50 cd/m², which is five times longer than 10 h for ITO-based device.     

Organic light sources look forward to optimize the photosynthesis process

We introduce a series of organic LEDs that exploit the monomer and excimer emissions from single phosphor dopant emitters. These organic LEDs were found to be effective in the simultaneous creation of blue and red emission bands essential for plant growth. By varying the concentration of novel phosphorescent dopants selected from a series of newly synthesized platinum complexes [PtL^22–25Cl], we have manufactured the blue-biased LEDs [with the Commission Internationale de L’Eclairage (CIE) coordinates (x, y) (0.27, 0.37)] and the red-biased LEDs [CIE coordinates (0.53, 0.38)], at a high luminance of ≈500 cd/m² and with external electroluminescence (EL) quantum efficiency of 15–18% photon/electron (→ power efficiency 8–12 lm/W). The EL spectrum most suitable for the action spectrum of photosynthesis yield was that of a device incorporating 20 wt.% content of [PtL²³Cl]. This LED yielded photosynthetic photon flux (PPF) approaching 10 μmol s⁻¹ W⁻¹ of the electrical power, a value which significantly exceeds that for the professional lamps used commonly for horticultural lighting.     

Screen-printed white OLED based on polystyrene as a host polymer

We demonstrate the use of screen printing in the fabrication of single-layer organic-light-emitting devices (OLEDs). The organic layer is a single-layer of polystyrene, in which we incorporate rubrene for orange emission and α-NPD, DPVBi for blue emission. An appropriate mixing of the two colors produced white emission by incomplete Förster energy transfer. We showed the role of each constituent, α-NPD, DPVBi and rubrene in the emission characteristics of OLEDs. The turn-on voltage of screen-printed white OLEDs was about 10 V with maximum brightness and luminous efficiency up to 1300 cd/m² and 9 cd/A, respectively.     

Near-white emitting QD-LED based on hydrophilic CdS nanocrystals

In this work we report fabrication of a nanocrystal (NC)-based hybrid organic–inorganic LED with structure of ITO/PEDOT:PSS/PVK/CdS-NCs/(Al or Mg:Ag). The hydrophilic CdS NCs were synthesized using a novel aqueous thermochemical method at 80 °C and sizes (around 2 nm) were controlled by thioglycolic acid (TGA) as the capping agent. The favorite feature of these NCs is their relatively high emission intensity and broad, near-white emission. The hydrophilic CdS NCs were successfully spin coated using Triton X-100 as the wetting agent. The fabricated LEDs demonstrated a turn on voltage about 7 V for Al metallic contact. The electroluminescence was a broad spectrum at 540 and 170 nm width, which was about 50 nm red shifted compared to photoluminescence spectra. The CIE color coordinates of the LED at (0.33, 0.43) demonstrated a near white light LED with an emission on green–yellow boundary of white. Annealing of the device up to 190 °C had a positive effect on the performance, possibly due to better contacts between layers. Replacing Al contacts with Mg:Ag reduced the turn-on voltage to 6 V and changed CIE color coordinate to (0.32, 0.41). The EL peak was also shifted to 525 nm, with a brightness of 15 Cd/m² at working voltage of 15 V. The current efficiency and external quantum efficiency of device were 0.08 Cd/A and 0.03% at current densities higher than 10 mA/cm².     

An organic electroluminescent device made from a gadolinium complex

A gadolinium ternary complex, tris(1-phenyl-3-methyl-4-isobutyryl-5-pyrazolone) (phenanthroline) gadolinium [Gd(PMIP)₃(Phen)] was synthesized and used as a light emitting material in the organic electroluminescent (EL) devices. The triple layer device with a structure of indium tin oxide (ITO)/N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(3-methylphenyl)-1,1′-biphenyl-4,4′-diamine (TPD) (20 nm)/Gd(PMIP)₃(Phen) (80 nm)/2, 9-dimethyl-4, 7-diphenyl-1, 10-phenanthroline (bathocuproine or BCP) (20 nm)/Mg: Ag(200 nm)/Ag(100 nm) exhibited green emission peaking at 535 nm. A maximum luminance of 230 cd/m² at 17 V and a peak power efficiency of 0.02 lm/w at 9 V were obtained.     

High-efficiency p–i–n organic light-emitting diodes with a novel n-doping electron transport layer

We demonstrate p–i–n organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) incorporating an n-doping transport layer which comprises 8-hydroxy-quinolinato lithium (Liq) doped into 4′7-diphyenyl-1,10-phenanthroline (Bphen) as ETL and a p-doping transport layer which includes tetrafluro-tetracyano-quinodimethane (F₄-TCNQ) doped into 4,4′,4″-tris(3-methylphenylphenylamono) triphenylamine (m-MTDATA). In order to examine the improvement in the conductivity of transport layers, hole-only and electron-only devices are fabricated. The current and power efficiency of organic light-emitting diodes have been improved significantly after introducing a novel n-doping (Bphen: 33 wt% Liq) layer as an electron transport layer (ETL) and a p-doping layer composed of m-MTDATA and F₄-TCNQ as a hole transport layer (HTL). Compared with the control device (without doping), the current efficiency and power efficiency of Device C (most efficient) is enhanced by approximately 51% and 89%, respectively, while driving voltage is reduced by 29%. This improvement is attributed to the improved conductivity of the transport layers that leads to the efficient charge balance in the emission zone.     

Red organic light-emitting diodes with high efficiency,low driving voltage and saturated red color realized via two step energy transfer based on ADN and Alq3 co-host system

We demonstrated efficient red organic light-emitting diodes based on a wide band gap material 9,10-bis(2-naphthyl)anthracene (ADN) doped with 4-(dicyano-methylene)-2-t-butyle-6-(1,1,7,7-tetramethyl-julolidyl-9-enyl)-4H-pyran (DCJTB) as a red dopant and 2,3,6,7-tetrahydro-1,1,7,7,-tetramethyl-1H,5H,11H-10(2-benzothiazolyl)quinolizine-[9,9a,1gh]coumarin (C545T) as an assistant dopant. The typical device structure was glass substrate/ITO/4,4′,4″-tris(N-3-methylphenyl-N-phenyl-amino)triphenylamine (m-MTDATA)/N,N′-bis(naphthalene-1-yl)-N,N′-diphenyl-benzidine (NPB)/[ADN:Alq₃]:DCJTB:C545T/Alq₃/LiF/Al. It was found that C545T dopant did not by itself emit but did assist the energy transfer from the host (ADN) to the red emitting dopant via cascade energy transfer mechanism. The OLEDs realized by this approach significantly improved the EL efficiency. We achieved a significant improvement regarding saturated red color when a polar co-host emitter (Alq₃) was incorporated in the matrix of [ADN:Alq₃]. Since ADN possesses a considerable high electron mobility of 3.1 × 10⁻⁴ cm²  V⁻¹ s⁻¹, co-host devices with high concentration of ADN (>70%) exhibited low driving voltage and high current efficiency as compared to the devices without ADN. We obtained a device with a current efficiency of 3.6 cd/A, Commission International d’Eclairage coordinates of [0.618, 0.373] and peak λ_max = 620 nm at a current density of 20 mA/cm². This is a promising way of utilizing wide band gap material as the host to make red OLEDs, which will be useful in improving the electroluminescent performance of devices and simplifying the process of fabricating full color OLEDs.     

Influence of growth parameters on the properties of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

The effects of growth parameters such as barrier growth time, growth pressure and indium flow rate on the properties of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) were investigated by using photoluminescence (PL), high resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD), and atomic force microscope (AFM). The InGaN/GaN MQW structures were grown on c-plane sapphire substrate by using metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. With increasing barrier growth time, the PL peak energy is blue-shifted by 18 nm. For InGaN/GaN MQW structures grown at different growth pressures, the PL intensity is maximized in the 300 Torr – grown structure, which could be attributed to the improved structural quality confirmed by HRXRD and AFM results. Also, the optical properties of InGaN/GaN MQW are strongly affected by the indium flow rate.     

Device linearity improvement and current enhancement utilizing high-to-low doping-channel FETs

We report device linearity improvement and current enhancement in both a heterostructure FET (HFET) and a camel-gate FET (CAMFET) using InGaAs/GaAs high-low and GaAs high-medium-low doped channels, respectively. In an HFET, a low doped GaAs layer was employed to build an excellent Schottky contact. In a GaAs CAMFET, a low doped layer together withn⁺andp⁺layers formed a high-performance majority camel-diode gate. Both exhibit high effective potential barriers of >1.0 V and gate-to-drain breakdown voltages of >20.0 V (atI_g=1.0 mA mm⁻¹). A thin, high doped channel was used to enhance current drivability and to improve the transconductance linearity. A 2×100 μm²HFET had a peak transconductance of 230 mS mm⁻¹and a current density greater than 800 mA mm⁻¹. The device had a transconductance of more than 80 percent of the peak value over a wide drain current range of 200 to 800 mA mm⁻¹. A 1.5×100 μm²CAMFET had a peak transconductance of 220 mS mm⁻¹and a current density greater than 800 mA mm⁻¹. Similarly, the device had a transconductance of more than 80 percent of the peak value over a wide drain current range of 160 to 800 mA mm⁻¹. The improvement of device linearity and the enhancement of current density suggest that high-to-low doped-channel devices for both an HFET and a CAMFET are suitable for high-power large signal circuit applications.     

Deep blue organic light emitting diode based on anthracene derivative as a dopant

This letter presents a deep blue organic light emitting diode which was fabricated by using 9,10-di(2-naphthyl)anthracene as a dopant and 4,4′-N,N′-dicarbazole-biphenyl as a host. The Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage coordinates of (0.1516, 0.0836) were achieved in the cell, which is very close to the National Television Standards Committee standard of (0.14, 0.08). Meanwhile, maximum luminance over 6500 cd/cm² and maximum current efficiency of 3.5 cd/A were also obtained.     

Model and simulation on the efficiencies of microcavity OLEDs

This paper presents simple calculation models of the external quantum efficiency and power efficiency for the microcavity OLEDs. The models take into account the energy spatial distribution of the device and provide a rough estimate of the efficiencies for the planar surface emitting devices, by which the integrating sphere and monochrometer were saved. The external quantum efficiency and luminous current efficiency from the structures of glass/DBR/ITO/NPB/Alq: C545T/Alq/LiF/Al and glass/ITO/NPB/Alq: C545T/Alq/LiF/Al were calculated based on these models and the measured data. Comparing with conventional OLED, the external quantum efficiency and luminous current efficiency of the MOLED were improved 3.1% and 8% at low current density (< 10 mA/cm², corresponding to the display brightness range), respectively.