The importance of holes in aluminium tris-8-hydroxyquinoline (Alq3) devices with Fe and NiFe contacts

Abstract

To study the dominant charge carrier polarity in aluminium tris-8-hydroxyquinoline (Alq3) based spin valves, single Alq3 layer devices with NiFe, ITO, Fe, and aluminium electrodes were fabricated and characterised by Time of Flight (ToF) and Dark Injection (DI) techniques, yielding a lower hole mobility compared to electron mobility. We compare the mobility measured by DI for the dominant carrier injected from NiFe and Fe electrodes into Alq3, to that of holes measured by ToF. This comparison leads us to conclude that the dominant charge carriers in Alq3 based spin valves with NiFe or Fe electrodes are holes.