Pyridine-incorporated dihexylquaterthiophene : a novel blue emitter for organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs)

The synthesis and characterisation of 2,5-bis(5′-hexyl-[2,2′- bithiophen]-5-yl)pyridine (Th4PY) and its use as a blue emitter in organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) is reported. Th4PY was synthesised in high yield using a straightforward Suzuki coupling route with commercially available starting materials. As Th4PY is both soluble and has low molecular weight, blue OLEDs were fabricated using both spin-coating and vacuum deposition thin film processing techniques to study the effect of processing on device performance. OLED devices using a spin-coated layer consisting of 4′,4′′- tris(N-carbazolyl)triphenylamine (TCTA) and 2-(4-biphenylyl)-5-(4-tert- butylphenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole (PBD) as a host matrix together with Th4PY as emitter exhibited highly efficient sky-blue emission with a low turn-on voltage of 3V, a maximum brightness close to 15000cdm-2 at 8V, and a maximum luminous efficiency of 7.4cdA -1 (6.3lmW -1) with CIE coordinates of x≤0.212, y≤0.320. The device performance characteristics are compared using various matrices and processing techniques. The promising sky-blue OLED performance, solution processability, and ambient stability make Th4PY a promising blue emitter for application in OLEDs.

Investigation on internal electric field distribution of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with Eu2O3 buffer layer

We have found that organic light-emitting diode (OLED) performance was highly improved by using europium oxide (Eu2O3) as a buffer layer on indium tin oxide (ITO) in OLEDs based on tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminium (Alq(3)), which showed low turn-on voltage, high luminance, and high electroluminescent (EL) efficiency. The thickness of Eu2O3 generally was 0.5-1.5 nm. We investigated the effects of Eu2O3 on internal electric field distributions in the device through the analysis of current-voltage characteristics, and found that the introduction of the buffer layer balanced the internal electric field distributions in hole transport layer (HTL) and electron transport layer (ETL), which should fully explain the role of the buffer layer in improving device performance. Our investigation demonstrates that the hole injection is Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunnelling and the electron injection is Richardson-Schottky (RS) thermionic emission, which are very significant in understanding the operational mechanism and improving the performance, of OLEDs.

ITO-free top emitting organic light emitting diodes with enhanced light out-coupling

Bottom emitting organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) can suffer from lower external quantum efficiencies (EQE) due to inefficient out-coupling of the generated light. Herein, it is demonstrated that the current efficiency and EQE of red, yellow, and blue fluorescent single layer polymer OLEDs is significantly enhanced when a MoOx(5 nm)/Ag(10 nm)/MoOx(40 nm) stack is used as the transparent anode in a top emitting OLED structure. A maximum current efficiency and EQE of 21.2 cd/A and 6.7%, respectively, was achieved for a yellow OLED, while a blue OLED achieved a maximum of 16.5 cd/A and 10.1%, respectively. The increase in light out-coupling from the top-emitting OLEDs led to increase in efficiency by a factor of up to 2.2 relative to the optimised bottom emitting devices, which is the best out-coupling reported using solution processed polymers in a simple architecture and a significant step forward for their use in large area lighting and displays.

Effect of thickness variation of hole injection and hole blocking layers on the performance of fluorescent green organic light emitting diodes

In this paper we present the effect of thickness variation of hole injection and hole blocking layers on the performance of fluorescent green organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). A number of OLED devices have been fabricated with combinations of hole injecting and hole blocking layers of varying thicknesses. Even though hole blocking and hole injection layers have opposite functions, yet there is a particular combination of their thicknesses when they function in conjunction and luminous efficiency and power efficiency are maximized. The optimum thickness of CuPc (Copper(II) phthalocyanine) layer, used as hole injection layer and BCP (2,9 dimethyl-4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline) used as hole blocking layer were found to be 18 nm and 10 nm respectively. It is with this delicate adjustment of thicknesses, charge balancing is achieved and luminous efficiency and power efficiency were optimized. The maximum luminous efficiency of 3.82 cd/A at a current density of 24.45 mA/cm(2) and maximum power efficiency of 2.61 lm/W at a current density of 5.3 mA/cm(2) were achieved. We obtained luminance of 5993 cd/m(2) when current density was 140 mA/cm(2). The EL spectra was obtained for the LEDs and found that it has a peaking at 524 nm of wavelength. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Efficiency improvement of organic light-emitting diodes using 8-hydroxy-quinolinato lithium as an electron injection layer

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) using tris-(8-hydroxy-quinolinato) aluminum (Alq(3)) as an emitter, 8-hydroxy-quinolinato lithium (Liq) as an electron injection layer, were prepared. Experimental results show that the efficiency of device with Liq is three times higher than that without Liq. The device using Liq as an injection layer is less sensitive in efficiency to the Liq thickness than that using LiF. In addition to the Alq3 based devices, Liq is also very effective as an electron injection layer for 4,4'-bis(2,2-diphenylvinyl)-1,1'-biphenyl based blue OLED and poly (2-methoxy,5-(2-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene) based orange polymer OLED. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Highly efficient and stable organic light-emitting diodes employing MoO3-doped perylene-3, 4, 9, 10-tetracarboxylic dianhydride as hole injection layer

We report highly efficient and stable organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with MoO3-doped perylene-3, 4, 9, 10-tetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA) as hole injection layer (HIL). A green OLED with structure of ITO/20 wt% MoO3: PTCDA/NPB/Alq(3)/LiF/Al shows a long lifetime of 1012 h at the initial luminance of 2000 cd/m(2), which is 1.3 times more stable than that of the device with MoO3 as HIL. The current efficiency of 4.7 cd/A and power efficiency of 3.7 lm/W at about 100 cd/m(2) have been obtained. The charge transfer complex between PTCDA and MoO3 plays a decisive role in improving the performance of OLEDs.

Tandem organic light-emitting diodes with an effective charge-generation connection structure

The tandem organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with an effective charge-generation connection structure of Mg-doped tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq(3))/Molybdenum oxide (MoO3)-doped 3, 4, 9, 10-perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA) were presented. At a current density of 50 mA/cm(2), the current efficiency of the tandem OLED with two standard NPB/Alq(3) emitting units is 4.2 cd/A, which is 1.7 times greater than that of the single EL device. The tandem OLED with the similar connection structure of Mg-doped PTCDA/MoO3-doped PTCDA was also fabricated and the influences of the different connection units on the current efficiency of the tandem OLED were discussed as well.

Undercut structure fabricated by complementary-structure micropatterning technique for the passive-matrix display of organic light-emitting diodes

This paper reports a new patterning method, the complementary-structure micropatterning (CSMP) technique, to fabricate the undercut structures for the passive-matrix display of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). First, the polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) stripe patterns with a trapeziform cross-section were formed by micromolding in capillaries. Then the photoresist was spin coated on the substrate with the patterned PVP stripes and developed in water.

The role of molybdenum oxide as anode interfacial modification in the improvement of efficiency and stability in organic light-emitting diodes

It has been experimentally found that molybdenum oxide (MoO3) as the interfacial modification layer on indium-tin-oxide (ITO) in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) significantly improves the efficiency and lifetime. In this paper, the role of MoO3 and MoO3 doped N,N '-di(naphthalene-1-yl)-N,N '-diphenyl-benzidine (NPB) as the interface modification layer on ITO in improvement of the efficiency and stability of OLEDs is investigated in detail by atomic force microscopy (AFM), polarized optical microscopy, transmission spectra, ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (UPS) and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS).

A soluble nonionic surfactant as electron injection material for high-efficiency inverted bottom-emission organic light emitting diodes

A soluble nonionic surfactant, polyethylenimine 80% ethoxylated (PEIE) solution, was used as the electron injection material in inverted bottom-emission organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). The transparent PEIE film was formed on indium-tin-oxide cathode by simple spin-coating method and it was found that the electron injection was greatly enhanced. The devices with PEIE electron injection layer had achieved significant enhancement in luminance and efficiency. The maximum luminance reached 47 000 cd/m(2), and the maximum luminance efficiency and power efficiency arrived at 19.7 cd/A and 10.6 lm/W, respectively.

Realization of blue, green and red emission from top-emitting white organic light-emitting diodes with exterior tunable optical films

We developed an approach to realize blue, green and red emission from top-emitting white organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) through depositing exterior tunable optical films on top of the OLEDs. Three primary colors for full color display including blue, green and red emission are achieved by controlling the wavelength-dependent transmittance of the multilayer optical films overlaid on the emissive layer.

Tungsten oxide doped N,N-'-di(naphthalen-1-yl)-N,N-'-diphenyl-benzidine as hole injection layer for high performance organic light-emitting diodes

By introducing tungsten oxide (WO3) doped N,N-'-di(naphthalen-1-yl)-N,N-'-diphenyl-benzidine (NPB) hole injection layer, the great improvement in device efficiency and the organic film morphology stability at high temperature were realized for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). The detailed investigations on the improvement mechanism by optical, electric, and film morphology properties were presented. The experimental results clearly demonstrated that using WO3 doped NPB as the hole injection layer in OLEDs not only reduced the hole injection barrier and enhanced the transport property, leading to low operational voltage and high efficiency, but also improved organic film morphology stability, which should be related to the device stability. It could be seen that due to the utilization of WO3 doped NPB hole injection layer in NPB/tris (8-quinolinolato) aluminum (Alq(3))-based device, the maximum efficiency reached 6.1 cd A(-1) and 4.8 lm W-1, which were much higher than 4.5 cd A(-1) and 1.1 lm W-1 of NPB/Alq(3) device without hole injection layer. The device with WO3 doped NPB hole injection layer yet gave high efficiency of 6.1 cd A(-1) (2.9 lm W-1) even though the device was fabricated at substrate temperature of 80 degrees C.

Synthesis and Application of Thiadiazoloquinoxaline-Containing Chromophores as Dopants for Efficient Near-Infrared Organic Light-Emitting Diodes

series of a donor-acceptor-donor type of near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent chromophores based on [1,2,5]thiadiazolo[3,4-g]quinoxaline (TQ) as an electron acceptor and triphenylamine as an electron donor are synthesized and characterized. By introducing pendent phenyl groups or changing the pi-conjugation length in the TQ core, we tuned tile energy levels of these chromophores, resulting in the NIR emission in a range from 784 to 868 nm. High thermal stability and glass transition temperatures allow these chromophores to be used as dopant emitters, which can be processed by vapor deposition for the fabrication of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) having the multilayered structure of ITO/MoO3/NPB/Alq(3):dopant emitter/BCP/Alq(3)/LiF/Al. The electroluminescence spectra of the devices based on these new chromophores cover a range from 748 to 870 nm. With 2 wt % of dopant 1, the LED device shows an exclusive NIR emission at 752 nm with the external quantum efficiency (EQE) as high as 1.12% over a wide range of current density (e.g., around 200 mA cm(-2)).

Efficient top-emitting organic light-emitting diodes with a V2O5 modified silver anode

We fabricated efficient top-emitting organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with silver (Ag) as an anode and samarium (Sm) as a semi-transparent cathode. The hole-injection barrier at the Ag anode/hole transporter interface is reduced by inserting a buffer layer of vanadium oxide (V2O5) between them. The ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy analysis shows that the hole-injection barrier is reduced by 0.5 eV. Both the V2O5 thickness and the organic layer thickness are optimized. The optimized device achieves a maximum current efficiency of 5.46 cd A(-1) and a power efficiency of 3.90 lm W-1, respectively.

Improved performances of organic light-emitting diodes with metal oxide as anode buffer

We demonstrate extremely stable and highly efficient organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on molybdenum oxide (MoO3) as a buffer layer on indium tin oxide (ITO). The significant features of MoO3 as a buffer layer are that the OLEDs show low operational voltage, high electroluminescence (EL) efficiency and good stability in a wide range of MoO3 thickness. A green OLED with structure of ITO/MoO3/N,N-'-di(naphthalene-1-yl)-N,N-'-diphenyl-benzidene (NPB)/NPB: tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq(3)):10-(2-benzothiazolyl)-2,3,6,7-tetrahydro-1,1,7,7-tetramethyl-1H, 5H, 11H-(1)-benzopyropyrano(6,7-8-i,j)quinolizin-11-one (C545T)/Alq(3)/LiF/Al shows a long lifetime of over 50 000 h at 100 cd/m(2) initial luminance, and the power efficiency reaches 15 lm/W. The turn-on voltage is 2.4 V, and the operational voltage at 1000 cd/m(2) luminance is only 6.9 V. The significant enhancement of the EL performance is attributed to the improvement of hole injection and interface stability at anode.