Role of the polymeric hole injection layer on the efficiency and stability of organic light emitting diodes with small molecular emitters

Abstract

In this paper, an improvement in the properties of the small molecular organic light emitting diode (OLED) upon application of a polymeric hole injection layer (HIL) was reported. The luminous efficiency, operating voltage and lifetime of devices with dye-doped small molecule emitters (fluorescent and phosphorescent) were found to be sensitive to the HIL/hole transport layer (HTL) combination used, where the improved injection and brightness was shown at the hole cascading structure and the longer lifetime behaviour was obtained at the hole-trapping structure. Use of a polymeric HIL significantly increased the luminous current efficiency and lifetime for both fluorescent blue and phosphorescent green/red light emitters. The polymeric HIL was effective in terms of the driving characteristics of phosphorescent OLED, since it provides higher brightness behaviour at lower current density. The apparent shade of the pixel image at light emission, which will probably induce degradation at the pixel wall interface, will be suppressed by the use of polymeric HIL. In spite of the ambiguity in the formation of such shaded pixels and their influence at the decay of OLED, intrinsic stability of polymeric HIL/anode would be advantageous for stable storage and operation of devices.