Hole injection efficiency, polymers

Lee, T.W. et al.. Hole-injecting conducting-polymer compositions for highly efficient and stable organic light-emitting diodes, Appl. Phys. Lett. 87, 231106, 2005. 

A striking enhancement in hole injection efficiency for another type of carbon surface is illustrated in the upper right hand portion of Fig. 6. In this case the substrate contact consists of highly graphitiz carbon particles dispersed in a polymer binder at concentrations exceeding the percolation threshold. Carbon filled polymers are complex percolative systems whose electrical behavior is a function of the filler, the filler interparticle contacts, the host matrix and... 

Figure 6. Hole injection efficiency figure of merit for substrate contacts of varying work function vs. energy step across the contact polymer interface estimated from published work function data and electrochemical redox potential data. The height of each bar reflects the variability in injection efficiency due primarily to variation in substrate surface pretreatment and for the particular case of Au, diffusion to the interface of metal atoms from underlying binder layers.

PPV and its alkoxy derivatives are /j-type conductors and, as a consequence, hole injection is more facile than electron injection in these materials. Efficient injection of both types of charge is a prerequisite for efficient LED operation. One approach to lowering the barrier for electron injection is the use of a low work function metal such as calcium. Encapsulation is necessary in this instance, however, as calcium is degraded by oxygen and moisture. An alternative approach is to match the LUMO of the polymer to the work function of the cathode. The use of copolymers may serve to redress this issue. 

Since the ionization potential of 238 matches closely the work function of PEDOT (5.1-5.3 eV) [335], the hole injection is dramatically improved. Accordingly, the device ITO/PEDOT/237 238(7 3)/Al has a significantly improved EL efficiency, tjel= 1.5cd/A, two orders of magnitude higher than that of single-layer PLED with 237, six times higher than that of bilayer PLED with triarylamine polymer HTL, and almost twice as high as that of PF blends with low molecular triphenylamine HT materials (in device with Ca electrode) [321]. 

Interest surged in studies of fluorescence after the discovery of electroluminescence from PPV (Burroughes et al., 1990), because of its potential for practical application in light emitting devices (LEDs). Electroluminescence is fluorescent emission produced by the recombination of electrons and holes injected into a thin film of conjugated polymer, and will be discussed in the next section. If photoluminescent emission from a polymer is weak, then the electroluminescence is unlikely to be of practical significance, and consequently studies of photoluminescence and photoluminescent quantum efficiency have been used as a means of selecting polymers likely to be useful in LEDs. 

---