Effects of doped dye on the charge carrier injection, transport, and electroluminescent performance in polymeric light-emitting diodes

Abstract

The effects of doped fluorescent dye 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-i-propyl-6-(1, 1, 7, 7-tetramethyljulolidyl-9-enyl)-4H-pyran (DCJTI) on the charge carrier injection, transport and electroluminescence (EL) performance in polyfluorene (PFO)-based polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs) were investigated by steady-state current-voltage (I−V) characteristics and transient EL measurements. A red EL from DCJTI was observed and the EL performance depended strongly on the DCJTI concentration. The analysis of the steady-state I−V characteristics at different DCJTI concentrations found that three regions was shown in the I−V characteristics, and each region was controlled by different processes depending on the applied electric field. The effect of the dopant concentration on the potential-barrier height of the interface is estimated using the Fowler–Nordheim model. The dopant concentration dependence of the current-voltage relationship indicated clearly the carrier trapping by the DCJTI molecules. The mobility in DCJTI: PFO changed significantly with the DCJTI concentration, and showed a nontrivial dependence on the doping level. The behavior may be understood in terms of the formation of an additional energy disorder due to potential fluctuation caused by the Coulomb interaction of the randomly distributed doping molecules.