Injection conjugated polymers

The enormous progress in the field of electroluminescent conjugated polymers has led to performances of oiganic light-emitting devices (LEDs) that are comparable and in some aspects superior to their inorganic counterparts 11). Quantum efficiencies in excess of 5% have been demonstrated [2] and show that a high fraction of the injected carriers in a polymeric electroluminescence (EL) device form electronic excitations which recombine radiatively. 

Figure 12-1. A comparison of theoretical and experimental injection currents into typically lOOnin thick films of conjugated polymers sandwiched between an ITO anode and an Al cathode. Open symbols refer to calculated j(F) characteristics. A is the zero field injection barrier (Ref. [21]).

Currem field characteristics measured wiih conjugated polymers sandwiched between an indium-tin oxide (ITO) anode and an aluminum cathode are usually hole dominated and are, consequently, appropriate for testing injection/lransport models for the case of unipolar current How. Data shown in Figure 12-1 refer to injection-limited currents recorded on typically 100 nm thick spin-coated films of derivatives of poly(y d/"fi-phenylenevinylene) (PPV) and a planarized poly(/ /" -pheny-leue) employing a Keilhley source measure unit. The polymers were ... 

In electroluminescent applications, electrons and holes are injected from opposite electrodes into the conjugated polymers to form excitons. Due to the spin symmetry, only the antisymmetric excitons known as singlets could induce fluorescent emission. The spin-symmetric excitons known as triplets could not decay radiatively to the ground state in most organic molecules [65], Spin statistics predicts that the maximum internal quantum efficiency for EL cannot exceed 25% of the PL efficiency, since the ratio of triplets to singlets is 3 1. This was confirmed by the performance data obtained from OLEDs made with fluorescent organic... 

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