Influence of thickness of functional layer on performance of organic salt-doped OLED with ITO/PVK:PBD:TBAPF6/Al structure

The effect of thickness of functional layer on the electrical and electroluminescence (EL) properties of single-layer OLED with ITO/PVK:PBD:TBAPF₆/Al structure were investigated where indium tin oxide (ITO) was used as anode, poly(9-vinylcarbazole) (PVK) as polymeric host, 2-(4-biphenylyl)-5-phenyl-1,3,4-oxadiazole (PBD) as electron-transporting molecule, tetrabutylammonium hexafluorophosphate (TBAPF₆) as organic salt dopant and aluminium (Al) as cathode. A unique transition phenomenon at high bias voltage in the devices was observed and the transition was reversible. The transition voltage and turn on voltage decreased with the decrease of functional layer thickness. The turn on voltage was approximately 5.5 V and 6.5 V for 55-nm-thick and 95-nm-thick devices, respectively. However, the current efficiency of 95-nm-thick device was higher than the 55-nm-thick device. More interestingly, the Commission Internationale d’Eclairage (C.I.E.) coordinates of EL spectra of 95-nm-thick device at bias voltage ranging from 7 V to 13 V located in the white light region even without any dye doping. The PL and EL spectra were found completely different. PBD electromer was proposed to dominate the EL spectrum, but the contribution from PVK–PBD electroplex cannot be completely ruled out.