Device physics of organic light-emitting diodes based on molecular materials

Since the discovery of electroluminescence in conjugated polymers it has been recognized that charge transport is a key ingredient for the efficiency of the polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs). This review focuses on the charge transport properties of these materials. From temperature dependent current density–voltage characteristics it has been obtained that the hole transport in poly(dialkoxy-p-phenylene vinylene) (PPV) is governed by a combination of space-charge effects and a field- and temperature-dependent mobility. The origin of the hole mobility, which seems to be generic for a large class of disordered materials, arises from hopping in a system with both energetic and structural disorder. The response time of PPV-based PLEDs is governed by the dispersive transport of holes towards the cathode. Based on the results of the electron- and hole-transport a device model for PLEDs is proposed in which the light generation is due to bimolecular recombination between the injected electrons and holes. The unbalanced electron and hole transport gives rise to a bias dependent efficiency. By comparison with experiment it is found that the bimolecular recombination process is of the Langevin-type, in which the rate-limiting step is the diffusion of electrons and holes towards each other. The occurrence of Langevin recombination explains why the conversion efficiency of current into light of a PLED is temperature independent. The understanding of the device operation of PLEDs indicates directions for further improvement of the performance.

Charge transport in poly(p-phenylene vinylene) light-emitting diodes

The basic photophysics, transport properties, state of the art, and challenges in OLED science and technology, and the major developments in structurally integrated OLED-based luminescent chemical and biological sensors are reviewed briefly. The dramatic advances in OLED performance have resulted in devices with projected continuous operating lifetimes of ~2 ? 105?h (~23?yr) at ~150?Cd?m?2 (the typical brightness of a computer monitor or TV). Consequently, commercial products incorporating OLEDs, e.g., cell phones, MP3 players, and, most recently, OLED TVs, are rapidly proliferating.The progress in elucidating the photophysics and transport properties, occurring in tandem with the development of OLEDs, has been no less dramatic. It has resulted in a detailed understanding of the dynamics of trapped and mobile negative and positive polarons (to which the electrons and holes, respectively, relax upon injection), and of singlet and triplet excitons. It has also yielded a detailed understanding of the spin dynamics of polarons and triplet excitons, which affects their overall dynamics significantly.Despite the aforementioned progress, there are outstanding challenges in OLED science and technology, notably in improving the efficiency of the devices and their stability at high brightness (>1000?Cd?m?2).One of the most recent emerging OLED-based technologies is that of structurally integrated photoluminescence-based chemical and biological sensors. This sensor platform, pioneered by the authors, yields uniquely simple and potentially very low-cost sensor (micro)arrays. The second part of this review describes the recent developments in implementing this platform for gas phase oxygen, dissolved oxygen (DO), anthrax lethal factor, and hydrazine sensors, and for a DO, glucose, lactate, and ethanol multianalyte sensor.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0022-3727/41/13/133001/pdf

Organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) and OLED-based chemical and biological sensors: an overview

Small molecule and polymer organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) show promise of revolutionizing display technologies. Hence, these devices and the materials that render them functional are the focus of intense scientific and technological interest. The archetypical multilayer OLED heterostructure introduces numerous chemical and physical challenges to the development of efficient and robust devices. It is demonstrated here that robust, pinhole-free, conformal, adherent films with covalently interlinked structures are readily formed via self-assembling or spin-coating organosilane-functionalized molecular precursors at the anode−hole transport layer interface. In this manner, molecularly “engineered” hole transport and hydrocarbon anode functionalization layers can be introduced with thicknesses tunable from the angstrom to nanometer scale. These investigations unequivocally show that charge injection and continuity at the anode−hole transport layer interface, hence OLED durability and efficiency, can be ...

Toward the Ideal Organic Light-Emitting Diode. The Versatility and Utility of Interfacial Tailoring by Cross-Linked Siloxane Interlayers

Detailed experimental and theoretical analysis of the pulsed excitation of polymer light emitting diodes is presented. We find a set of universal transient features for a variety of device configurations (different polymers/cathodes) which can be reproduced using our phenomenological numerical model. We find that the temporal evolution of the electroluminescence in response to a step voltage pulse is characterized by: (i) a delay followed by; (ii) a fast initial rise at turn-on followed by; (iii) a slow rise (slower by at least one order of magnitude). The large mobility mismatch between holes and electrons in conjugated polymers allows us to separately time resolve the motion of holes and electrons. We suggest a method for extracting mobility values that takes into account the possible field-induced broadening of carrier fronts, and which is found to be compatible with mobilities determined from constant wave measurements. By using appropriate device configurations it is possible to determine the mobilities of both holes and electrons from a single device. Mobilities for holes and electrons are extracted for a poly(p-phenylenevinylene) copolymer and poly(di-octyl fluorene).

Transient electroluminescence of polymer light emitting diodes using electrical pulses

It has been claimed that the variation of current I with voltage V in an organic light emitting diode (LED), based on either metal chelate complexes or conducting polymers, is explained by shallow traps that trap carriers propagating in the conduction or valence band. However, because these are disordered materials all states are localized. We show that it is possible to fit the dependence of I on V and on film thickness without explicitly introducing traps, but taking their effect into account by including the mobility variation with the electric field that arises from the distribution in energy of the localized levels.

E. Forsythe

Papers

Current–voltage characteristic of organic light emitting diodes