Indium OLEDS

A typical multilayer thin film OLED is made up of several active layers sandwiched between a cathode (often Mg/Ag) and an indium-doped tin oxide (ITO) glass anode. The cathode is covered by the electron transport layer which may be A1Q3. An emitting layer, doped with a fluorescent dye (which can be A1Q3 itself or some other coordination compound), is added, followed by the hole transport layer which is typically a-napthylphenylbiphenyl amine. An additional layer, copper phthalocyanine is often inserted between the hole transport layer and the ITO electrode to facilitate hole injection. 

Other materials such as gold (< = 4.9 eV), aluminum (< = 4.2 eV), indium-doped zinc oxide, magnesium indium oxide, nickel tungsten oxide, or other transparent conductive oxide materials, have been studied as anodes in OLEDs. Furthermore, the WF of ITO can be varied by surface treatments such as application of a very thin layer of Au, Pt, Pd, or C, acid or base treatments, self-assembly of active surface molecules, or plasma treatment. 

ANODE MODIFICATION FOR ENHANCING OLED PERFORMANCE 6.2.1 Indium Tin Oxide Surface Treatment and Modification... 

The OLED is composed of hard and soft layers so that the conventional cross-sectional TEM sample preparation techniques cannot be applied. Figure 10.3 is a first DB microscopy-prepared TEM image of an OLED in cross-sectional view [37], The glass substrate, ITO, organic layers, and A1 cathode are indicated in the image. The microstructure and interfaces of all these layers can be well studied now. The nanometer-sized spots in organic layers are indium-rich particles. We believe the combination of DB microscopy and TEM will greatly advance the OLED research and development in the near future. 

Figure 3.26. Structure of an OLED. S = substrate (glass), ANO = anode (e.g., ITO — indium tin oxide), HIL = hole injection layer (e.g., Cu phthalocyanine), HTL = hole transport layer, EML = emission layer, ETL = electron transport layer, EIL = electron injection layer (e.g., LiF), KAT = cathode (e.g., Ag Mg, Al). The light that is generated by the recombination of holes and electrons is coupled out via the transparent anode.

Fig. 1.20. Schematic energy band diagram of a two-layer organic light emitting diode (OLED), in which tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) is used to inject holes into the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and a low work function metal to inject electrons into the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO)...

The OLEDs were fabricated on the pre-patterned, pre-cleaned indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrates. The substrates were patterned using standard photolithography technique and then cleaned with soap solution followed by boiling in trichloroethylene and isopropyl alcohol. The films were finally dried under vacuum. After cleaning the... 

Electroluminescence (EL) is the phenomenon by which electrical energy is converted into luminous energy by the recombination of electrons and holes in the emissive material [8], The basic structure of an OLED consists of a thin film of organic material sandwiched between two electrodes, an anode of high-work-function material such as indium tin oxide (ITO) on a glass substrate, and a cathode of a low-work-function metal such as calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), or aluminum (Al) or an alloy such as Mg Ag. 

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