Effect of phosphonic acid surface modifiers on the work function of indium tin oxide and on the charge injection barrier into organic single-layer diodes

Abstract

We investigate the use of several phosphonic acid surface modifiers in order to increase the indium tin oxide (ITO) work function in the range of 4.90–5.40 eV. Single-layer diodes consisting of ITO/modifier/N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(1-naphthyl)-1,1′ biphenyl-4,4″ diamine (α-NPD)/Al and ITO/modifier/pentacene/Al were fabricated to see the influence of the modified ITO substrates with different work functions on the charge injection. To calculate the charge injection barrier with different surface modifiers, the experimentally measured current density-voltage (J-V) characteristics at different temperatures are fitted using an equivalent circuit model that assumes thermionic emission across the barrier between the ITO work function and the highest occupied molecular orbital of the organic material. The charge injection barrier height extracted from the model for various surface modifier-based diodes is independent of the ITO work function within the range of changes achieved through modifiers for both α-NPD and pentacene-based single-layer diodes.