An organic electroluminescent device with a molecularly doped polymer hole transport layer

Electroluminescent(EL) devices have been fabricated using four different polymers with different glass transition temperatures (T_g) dispersed with N,N′-bis-(3-methylphenyl)-N,N′-diphenyl-1,1′-biphenyl-4,4′-diamine (TPD) as a hole transport layer and tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq₃) as an emitting layer. It was found that the higher the T_g of the polymer, the longer the lifetime of the device. From observations of TPD-doped polymer films with optical microscope and atomic force microscope, dispersing TPD in the polymers was found to suppress the crystallization that causes the roughness of the film surface. It was also observed that the higher the T_g of the host polymers, the more difficult TPD crystallization was. The property of the EL device with polyethersulfone (PES) dispersed with TPD was also investigated. The lifetime of EL device with the TPD doped PES film was improved more than five times at a current density below 10 mA/cm² compared with the device with a conventional TPD hole transport layer. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.