High efficiency composite metal oxide-polymer electroluminescent devices: A morphological and material based investigation

Abstract

A comprehensive study of various metal oxides in mesoporous and compact forms for electron injection in highly luminescent composite oxide-polymer light emitting diodes (COPLED) was presented. An improved performance with higher luminance and lower turn on voltage without O2 plasma treatment of the ITO prior to metal-oxide deposition is observed. It is found that the compact TiO2 performs considerably better than the mesoporous TiO2 and that the compact ZnO electron injection layer performs better than mesoporous and compact anatase. The higher current densities are due to leakage current through metal-oxide compact layers, and improvement of this deposition is found to increase the performance. Introducing a photonic structure into the metal oxide layers is found to enhance the optical out-coupling and electroluminescance efficiency.