Reduction of driving voltage in organic light-emitting diodes with molybdenum trioxide in CuPc/NPB interface

A novel structure of organic light-emitting diode was fabricated by inserting a molybdenum trioxide (MoO₃) layer into the interface of hole injection layer copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) and hole transport layer N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(1-napthyl-phenyl)-1,1′-biphenyl-4,4′-diamine (NPB). It has the configuration of ITO/CuPc(10 nm)/MoO₃(3 nm)/NPB(30 nm)/ tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq₃)(60 nm)/LiF(0.5 nm)/Al. The current density-voltage-luminance (J-V-L) performances show that this structure is beneficial to the reduction of driving voltage and the enhancement of luminance. The highest luminance increased by more than 40% compared to the device without hole injection layer. And the driving voltage was decreased obviously. The improvement is ascribed to the step barrier theory, which comes from the tunnel theory. The power efficiency was also enhanced with this novel device structure. Finally, “hole-only” devices were fabricated to verify the enhancement of hole injection and transport properties of this structure.     

Efficient white organic light-emitting devices using 4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline as block layer

A white light-emitting device has been fabricated with a structure of ITO/m-MTDATA (45 nm)/NPB (10 nm)/DPVBi (8 nm)/DPVBi:DCJTB 0.5% (15 nm)/BPhen (x nm)/Alq₃ [(55−x) nm]/LiF (1 nm)/Al, with x=0, 4, and 7. BPhen was used as the hole-blocking layer. This results in a mixture of lights from DPVBi molecules (blue-light) and DCJTB (yellow-light) molecules, producing white light emission. The chromaticity can be readily adjusted by only varying the thickness of the BPhen layer. The CIE coordinates of the device are largely insensitive to the driving voltages. When the thickness of BPhen is 7 nm, the device exhibits peak efficiency of 6.87 cd/A (3.59 lm/W) at the applied voltage of 6 V, the maximum external quantum efficiency η_ext=2.07% corresponding to 6.18 cd/A, and the maximum brightness is 18494 cd/m² at 15 V.     

NaCl/Ca/Al as an efficient cathode in organic light-emitting devices

An efficient cathode NaCl/Ca/Al used to improve the performance of organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) was reported. Standard N,N′-bis(1-naphthyl)-N,N′-diphenyl-1,1′ biphenyl 4,4′-dimaine (NPB)/tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq₃) devices with NaCl/Ca/Al cathode showed dramatically enhanced electroluminescent (EL) efficiency. A power efficiency of 4.6 lm/W was obtained for OLEDs with 2 nm of NaCl and 10 nm of Ca, which is much higher than 2.0 lm/W, 3.1 lm/W, 2.1 lm/W and 3.6 lm/W in devices using, respectively, the LiF (1 nm)/Al, LiF (1 nm)/Ca (10 nm)/Al, Ca (10 nm)/Al and NaCl (2 nm)/Al cathodes. The investigation of the electron injection in electron-only devices indicates that the utilization of the NaCl/Ca/Al cathode substantially enhances the electron injection current, which in case of OLEDs leads to the improvement of the brightness and efficiency.     

Improvement of performance of tetraphenylporphyrin-based red organic light emitting diodes using WO3 and C60 buffer layers

One of the porphyrin derivatives, meso-tetraphenylporphyrin (TPP), has been synthesized and examined as an emitter material (EM) for efficient fluorescent red organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). By inserting a tungsten oxide (WO₃) layer into the interface of anode (ITO) and hole transport layer N,N′-Di-[(1-napthyl)-N,N′-diphenyl]-(1,1′-biphenyl)-4,4′-diamine (NPB) and by using fullerene (C₆₀) in contact with a LiF/Al cathode, the performance of devices was markedly improved. The current density–voltage–luminance (J–V–L) characterizations of the samples show that red OLEDs with both WO₃ and C₆₀ as buffer layers have a lower driving voltage and higher luminance compared with the devices without buffer layers. The red OLED with the configuration ITO/WO₃ (3 nm)/NPB (50 nm)/TPP (60 nm)/BPhen (30 nm)/C₆₀ (5 nm)/LiF (0.8 nm)/Al (100 nm) achieved the high luminance of 6359 cd/m² at the low driving voltage of 8 V. At a current density of 20 mA/cm², a pure red emission with CIE coordinates of (0.65; 0.35) is observed for this device. Moreover, a power efficiency of 2.07 lm/W and a current efficiency of 5.17 cd/A at 20 mA/cm² were obtained for the fabricated devices. The study of the energy level diagram of the devices revealed that the improvement in performance of the devices with buffer layers could be attributed to lowering of carrier-injecting barrier and more balanced charge injection and transport properties.     

Novel transparent Yb-based cathodes for top-emitting organic light emitting devices with high performance

We have studied three kinds of transparent low-work-function Yb-based cathodes for the top-emitting organic light emitting devices (TEOLEDs) with a structure of ITO/NPB/Alq₃/cathodes and compared them with each other. For the Yb/Au cathodes, a series of Yb layers with various thicknesses have been tested and it is found that the Yb layer with a thickness of 4 nm is the optimum one. The Yb:Au (19 nm) and Yb:Ag (19 nm) co-evaporation cathodes possess very high transmittance but relative poor electron injection; whilst the Yb (4 nm)/Au (15 nm) cathode possess a little lower transmittance but much improved electron injection and the TEOLED with this cathode has the highest power efficiency among the TEOLEDs with the three kinds of Yb-based cathodes mentioned above.     

High efficiency small molecule white organic light-emitting devices with a multilayer structure

In this paper, a new white organic light-emitting device (WOLED) with multilayer structure has been fabricated. The structure of devices is ITO/N, N-bis-(1-naphthyl)-N, N^′-diphenyl-1, 1′-biphenyl-4, 4′-diamine (NPB) (40 nm)/NPB: QAD (1%): DCJTB (1%) (10 nm) /DPVBi (10 nm) /2, 9-dimethyl, 4, 7-diphenyl, 1, 10-phenanthroline (BCP) (d nm)/tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminium (Alq₃)(50-d nm)/LiF (1 nm)/Al (200 nm). In our devices, a red dye 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-t-butyl-6 (1, 1, 7, 7-tetramethyl julolidyl-9-enyl)-4H-pyran (DCJTB) and a green dye quinacridone (QAD) were co-doped into NPB. The device with 8 nm BCP shows maximum luminance of 12 852 cd/m² at 20 V. The current efficiency and power efficiency reach 9.37 cd/A at 9 V and 3.60 lm/W at 8 V, respectively. The thickness of the blocking layer permit the tuning of the device spectrum to achieve a balanced white emission with Commission International de’Eclairage (CIE) chromaticity coordinates of (0.33,0.33). The CIE coordinates of device change from (0.3278, 0.3043) at 5 V to (0.3251, 0.2967) at 20 V that are well in the white region, which is largely insensitive to the applied bias.     

Low driving voltage in organic light-emitting diode using MoO3/NPB multiple quantum well structure in hole transport layer

Driving voltage of 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 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), 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 reducing 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.     

Bright electrophosphorescent devices based on sterically hindered spacer-containing Cu(I) complex

A Cu(I) complex, [Cu(Dppp)(DPEphos)]BF₄ (Dppp=2,3-diphenyl-pyrazino[2,3-f][1,10]phenanthroline, DPEphos=Bis[2-(diphenylphosphino)phenyl]ether), is synthesized and used as the dopant in bright electrophosphorescent devices with the general structure ITO/m-MTDATA (30 nm)/NPB (20 nm)/CBP: ×wt% [Cu(Dppp)(DPEphos)]BF₄ (30 nm)/Bphen (20 nm)/Alq₃ (20 nm)/LiF (0.8 nm)/ Al (200 nm). These devices exhibit a maximum brightness of 4483 cd/m² and a peak efficiency of 3.4 cd/A. Compared with previously reported similar devices based on Cu(I) complexes, the brightness of the devices presented in this article is the best. Meanwhile, 2% [Cu(Dppp)(DPEphos)]BF₄-based devices exhibit white light-emitting properties with CIE coordinates of (0.32. 0.35) at 10 V.     

一种改善红光顶发射OLED色纯度及角度依赖特性的方法研究

在Si/SiO₂衬底上生长金属银作为阳极,4,4,4-tris(3-methylphenylpheny-lamino)-triphenylamine(m-MTDATA):MoOx/m-MTDATA/N,N-bis-(1-naphthyl)-N,N-diphenyl-1,1-biphenyl-4,4-diamine(NPB)作为空穴注入及传输层,发光层采用4,4-N,N-dicarbazole-biphenyl(CBP)掺杂磷光染料(1-(phenyl)isoquinoline)iridium(III) acetylanetonate(Ir(piq)₂(acac))的结构,4,7-di-phenyl-1,10-phenanthroline(BPhen)作为空穴阻挡层及电子传输层,阴极为LiF(1 nm)/Al(2 nm)/Ag(20 nm)复合阴极结构.通过在光取出的复合阴极上方生长一层CBP光学覆盖层,有效地改善了复合阴极膜系的透射率,从而改善了顶发射结构的光学耦合输出特性,在提高器件的正向发光效率的同时还使色坐标往深红光区移动.并且生长光学覆盖层结构的器件角度依赖特性明显得到改善,这对于制作高显示质量的显示器件具有重要意义.在原有结构的基础上增加20 nm的NPB掺杂磷光染料Ir(piq)₂(acac)作发光层,从而得到双发光层结构为NPB:Ir(piq)₂(acac)(1%,20 nm)/CBP:Ir(piq)₂(acac)(1%, 20 nm).由于NPB具有较高的空穴迁移率,避免了由于光学厚度的增加而引起器件工作电压的大幅升高,而双发光层的结构有利于增大激子复合区域,提高辐射复合几率,减少非辐射损耗,实现主客体之间高效的三线态能量传递,相对单发光层顶发射结构,双发光层结构不仅提高了器件的发光效率,而且改善了器件的色坐标.     

Enhanced power efficiency for white OLED with MoO3 as hole injection layer and optimized charge balance

White OLEDs with a different hole injection layer (MoO₃ or m-MTDATA), and a different electron transport layer (Alq₃ or Bphen) have been investigated. With 9,10-bis (2-naphthyl)-2-t-butylanthracene (TBADN) doped with 3% P-bis (P-N, N-diphenyl-aminostyryl) benzene (DSA-ph) and 0.05% 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-t-butyl-6-(1,1,7,7,-tetramethyl-julolidy-9-enyl)-4H-pyran (DCJTB) as white emitting layer, the MoO₃/ /Bphen based device shows the lowest driving voltage and highest power efficiency among the referenced devices. At the current density of 20 mA/cm², its driving voltage and power efficiency are 5.43 V and 4.54 lm/W respectively, which is independently reduced 40% and improved 57% compared with those of the m-MTDATA/ / Alq₃ based one, respectively. The energy level diagram of the devices and single-carrier devices are studied to explain the reasons for the improvement. The results strongly indicate that carrier injection ability and balance shows a key significance in OLED performance.     

Characterization of two-emitter WOLED with no additional blocking layer

In this paper, white organic light emitting diodes (WOLEDs) utilizing two primary-color emitters with no additional blocking layer are fabricated. With a structure of ITO/2TNATA (20 nm)/NPB (20 nm)/NPB: rubrene (2%) (10 nm)/ADN (30 nm)/Alq₃ (20 nm)/LiF (1 nm)/Al (100 nm), a white light with CIE coordinates of (0.344, 0.372) is generated at a current density of 30 mA/cm² and the electroluminescence (EL) spectra consist of two broad bands around 456 nm (ADN) and 556 nm (NPB:rubrene). The device shows the low turn-on voltage and bright white emission with a power efficiency of 2.3 lm/W at a luminance of 100 cd/m². Through control of the location of the recombination zone and energy transfer, a stable white light emission is achieved. The maximum color shift is less than 0.02 units on the 1931 CIE x,y chromaticity diagram. Given the spectral power distribution of WOLED, the parameters of a light source (chromaticity coordinate, CCT, CRI, and the luminous efficacy) can be calculated. A MATLAB program for this purpose is developed in this paper. Based on this, the design of WOLED for an illumination and display system using a white emitter with color filter arrays is discussed.     

Efficient and stable single-dopant white OLEDs based on 9,10-bis (2-naphthyl) anthracene

Efficient white organic light-emitting diodes (WOLEDs) are fabricated with a thin layer of 9,10-bis (2-naphthyl) anthracene (ADN) doped with Rubrene as the source of white emission. A device with the structure of ITO/NPB (70 nm)/ADN: 0.5% Rubrene (30 nm)/Alq₃ (50 nm)/MgAg shows a maximum current efficiency of 3.7 cd/A, with the CIE coordinates of x=0.33, y=0.43. The EL spectrum of the devices and the CIE coordinates remains almost the same when the voltage is increased from 10 to 15 V and the current efficiency remains quite stable with the current density increased from 20 to 250 mA/cm².     

New double graded structure for enhanced performance in white organic light emitting diode

This study presents a new design that uses a combination of a graded hole transport layer (GH) structure and a gradually doped emissive layer (GE) structure as a double graded (DG) structure to improve the electrical and optical performance of white organic light-emitting diodes (WOLEDs). The proposed structure is ITO/m-MTDATA (15 nm)/NPB (15 nm)/NPB: 25% BAlq (15 nm)/NPB: 50% BAlq (15 nm)/BAlq: 0.5% Rubrene (10 nm)/BAlq: 1% Rubrene (10 nm)/BAlq: 1.5% Rubrene (10 nm)/Alq₃ (20 nm)/LiF (0.5 nm)/Al (200 nm). (m-MTDATA: 4,4′,4″ -tris(3-methylphenylphenylamino)triphenylamine; NPB: N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(1-naphthyl-phenyl)-(1,1′-biphenyl)-4,4′-diamine; BAlq: aluminum (III) bis(2-methyl-8-quinolinato) 4-phenylphenolate; Rubrene: 5,6,11,12-tetraphenylnaphthacene; Alq₃: tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum). By using this structure, the best performance of the WOLED is obtained at a luminous efficiency at 11.8 cd/A and the turn-on voltage of 100 cd/m² at 4.6 V. The DG structure can eliminate the discrete interface, and degrade surplus holes, the electron-hole pairs are efficiently injected and balanced recombination in the emissive layer, thus the spectra are unchanged under various drive currents and quenching effects can be significantly suppressed. Those advantages can enhance efficiency and are immune to drive current density variations.     

Multiple roles of bathocuproine employed as a buffer-layer in organic light-emitting diodes

Efficiency and brightness and carriers injection have been obviously improved by using bathocuproine (BCP) as a buffer-layer in organic light-emitting diodes. Compared with the bufferless device, the quantum efficiency of device ITO/NPB (10 nm)/Alq₃ (10 nm)/BCP (2.4 nm)/Al has increased four times at the same current density (32 mA/cm²). Moreover, the buffer layer has changed the current-voltage properties and the turn-on voltage has obviously decreased. Considering BCP and Al³⁺ can react conveniently under room temperature, we suggest that a complex cathode structure of BCP/[(Al)_x(BCP)_y]^3x+/Al has formed under electric field and the new cation [(Al)_x(BCP)_y]^3x+ at the BCP/Al interface has improved the internal electric field and then enhanced the electrons injection. we conclude that: for a very thin (<1 nm) BCP buffer layer, improving electron injection will principally responsible to the improvement of the performance of the OLEDs; for a thicker BCP layer, there will be a synthetic function of BCP: improving electron injection, hole-blocking and electron-transporting.     

Highly efficient greenish blue-emitting organic diodes based on pyrene derivatives

We report the synthesis of pyrene derivatives as the light emissive layer for highly efficient organic electroluminescence (EL) diodes. Multilayer devices were fabricated with pyrene derivatives (ITO/NPB (50 nm)/blue material (30 nm)/BCP (10 nm)/Alq₃ (30 nm)/LiF (1 nm)/Al). By using 1,1′-dipyrene (DP) and 1,4-dipyrenyl benzene (DPB), the devices produced the blue EL emissions with 1931 Commission International de L’Eclairage coordinates of (x=0.21, y=0.35) and (x=0.19, y=0.25), respectively. The device with DPB shows a maximum brightness of 42,445 cd/m² at 400 mA/cm² and the luminance efficiency of 8.57 cd/A and 5.18 lm/W at 20 mA/cm².     

Synthesis, crystal structure and blue electroluminescence of a new zinc complex based on 2,6-bis(benzimidazolyl)pyridine

A very stable and blue luminescent complex Zn(bbp)Cl₂ (bbp: 2,6-bis(benzimidazolyl)pyridine) was synthesized. X-ray crystal structural analysis for the complex revealed that there are intermolecular π?π interactions in the solid state. The fluorescence properties for this complex were studied. The similar devices with the structure of [ITO/CuPc(31 nm)/NPB(80 nm)/[Zn(bbp)Cl₂] (or L) (85 nm)/LiF15/Al] were constructed to investigate their electroluminescent performance. Both the complex and the ligand can be fabricated as blue-emitting materials. The complex shows emission peak at 555 nm, electroluminescent efficiency 0.017 cd A⁻¹ and turn-on voltage 7 V, compared to 470 nm, 0.036 cd A⁻¹ and 9 V for the ligand.     

The roles of zinc selenide sandwiched between organic layers and its applications in white light-emitting diodes

In this paper, the roles of zinc selenide (ZnSe) sandwiched between organic layers, i.e. organic/ZnSe/aluminum quinoline (Alq₃), have been studied by varying device structure. A broad band emission was observed from ITO/poly(N-vinylcarbazole)(PVK)(80 nm)/ZnSe(120 nm)/ Alq₃(15 nm)/Al under electric fields and it combined the emissions from the bulk of PVK, ZnSe and Alq₃, however, emission from only Alq₃ was observed from trilayer device ITO/N,N^′-bis-(1-naphthyl)-N,N^′-diphenyl-1, 1^′-biphenyl-4, 4^′-diamine (NPB) (40 nm)/ZnSe(120 nm)/ Alq₃(15 nm)/Al. Consequently the luminescence mechanism in the ZnSe layer is suggested to be charge carrier injection and recombination. By thermal co-evaporating Alq₃ and 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-t-butyl-6-(1,1,7,7-tetramethyljulolidyl-9-enyl)-4H-pyran (DCJTB), we get white light emission with a Commission Internationale de l’E clairage (C.I.E) co-ordinates of (0.32, 0.38) from device ITO/PVK(80 nm)/ZnSe(120 nm)/ Alq₃:DCJTB(0.5 wt% DCJTB)(15 nm)/Al at 15 V and the device performs stably with increasing applied voltages.     

White organic electroluminescent device with photovoltaic performances

Organic device with structure of indium tin oxide (ITO)/1,3,5-tris-(3-methylphenylphenylamino)triphenylamine (m-MTDATA)/2-tert-butyl-9,10-di-beta-naphthylanthracene (TBADN)/2,9-dimethyl-4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenan-throline (BCP)/LiF/Al, was fabricated, which show high efficient white electroluminescence (EL) or photovoltaic (PV) properties when it was driven by direct current (DC) bias or illuminated by ultraviolet (UV) light. Under a DC bias, the device shows efficient white EL emission. A maximum luminous efficiency of 1.1 lm/W was obtained at 8 V, which corresponds the Commission International de L’Eclairage coordinates (CIE) of (x = 0.298, y = 0.365). When the bias was increased to 12 V, the device shows bright white emission with the maximum brightness of 4300 cd/m², corresponding CIE coordinates of (x = 0.262, y = 0.280). When the diode was irradiated by a 365 nm UV-light (4 mW/cm²), the open-circuit voltage (V_oc) of 1.2 V, short-circuit (I_sc) of 0.065 mA/cm², fill factor (FF) of 0.24 and power conversion efficiency of 0.47% have been determined, respectively. The generation mechanisms of white light and PV of the bi-functional diode were discussed as well.     

Synthesis and luminescent properties of two Schiff-base boron complexes

Schiff bases N,N′-o-phenylenebis (salicylideneimine) (H₂L¹), N,N′-p-phenylenebis (salicylideneimine) (H₂L²) and their corresponding boron complexes (BF₂)₂L¹, (BF₂)₂L² were synthesized, respectively. The two boron complexes have been characterized by ¹H NMR, mass spectrometry and elemental analysis, while the luminescent properties of them were investigated with UV-VIS spectroscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy. Then the three-layer devices [ITO/NPB (60 nm)/(BF₂)₂L¹ (50 nm)/Alq3 (20 nm)/LiF (1 nm)/Al (200 nm)] (device I) and [ITO/NPB (60 nm)/(BF₂)₂L² (50 nm)/Alq3 (20 nm)/LiF (1 nm)/Al (200 nm)] (device II) were fabricated by vacuum deposition. These two devices both exhibited blue green emission at 500 nm, but showed different luminances and efficiencies.     

Bias voltage dependence of inverted magnetoresistance on the annealing temperature in MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions

MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with a layer sequence Ir₂₂Mn₇₈ or Fe₅₀Mn₅₀ (10 nm)/CoFe (2 nm)/Ru (0.85 nm)/CoFeB (0.5?t<2 nm)/MgO (2.5 nm)/CoFeB (3 nm) have been fabricated. The bias voltage dependence of tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) is given as a function of the annealing temperature for these MTJs, which shows the TMR ratio changes its sign from inverted to normal at a critical bias voltage (V_C) when an unbalanced synthetic antiferromagnetic stack CoFe/Ru/CoFeB is used. V_Cs change with the thickness of the pinned CoFeB and annealing temperature, which implies one can achieve different V_Cs by artificial control. The asymmetric V_C values suggest that a strong density-of-states modification occurs at bottom oxide/ferromagnet interface.