Effective hole injection of organic light-emitting diodes by introducing buckminsterfullerene on the indium tin oxide anode

Abstract

We demonstrate that dramatically improved hole injection can be achieved by inserting a very thin C60 film between the indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode and N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(1,1′-biphenyl)-4,4′-diamine (NPB) layer. This result is ascribed to the formation of an interfacial dipole layer of buckminsterfullerene (C60) on the ITO electrode. The dipole layer induces the surface potential shift that contributes to improve the charge injection efficiency. The chemical shift was downward to help lower the hole injection energy barrier from the ITO electrode to the NPB layer, consistent with the moderately strong electron accepting nature of C60. The enhanced-charge injection provides a simple way of reducing the power consumption of organic electronic devices for real applications.