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We have fabricated highly stable organic electroluminescent devices based on spin-coated soluble phenyl-substituted poly-p-phenylene-vinylene (Ph-PPVs) thin films. The electrical properties of aluminum cathode, prepared by ion-beam-assisted deposition, on Ph-PPV have been investigated and compared to those prepared by thermal evaporation. Although energetic particles of Al assisted by Ar+ ion may damage the organic material, I–V–L characteristics are improved by evaporating a thin Al buffer layer prior to ion-beam-assisted deposition. In addition, a dense Al cathode inhibits the permeation of H2O and O2 into Ph-PPV film by suppressing pinhole defects, and thus retards dark spot growth. This may be deduced from highly packed structure of Al cathode with smaller contact resistance between Al and Ph-PPV. The lifetime of an organic light-emitting device has been extended by dense Al film through an ion-beam-assisted deposition process.

Most of organic devices showed poor thermal stability and short lifetime due to Joule heating by current injection during operation. To increase the lifetime of the devices, thermal management must be considered. We demonstrated the polymer light-emitting diodes with thermally conductive substrate and Al/Cu double cathode to enhance the thermal stability of the device. Also, we proposed the correlation between lifetime (Δt) and device heat sink (ΔT). The heat sink of all organic devices is required to enhance device durability.

A semitransparent cathode of indium tin oxide (ITO)/Ag/ITO was developed as a resonant tunneling double barrier structure for transparent organic light-emitting diodes. A weak negative differential resistance was observed in devices using a 100nm thick ITO/Ag/ITO layer as a cathode in combination with a thin LiF∕Al layer. The current injection of devices was dominated by resonant tunneling, which induced no luminance at low voltage. This was achieved by employing an e-beam evaporated ITO/Ag/ITO cathode due to the double quantum barriers of ITO and the quantum well of Ag. The authors also applied the multilayer cathode to small molecule devices, which showed the same resonant tunneling currents.

The authors have investigated the effects of indium tin oxide (ITO) deposited by ion beam assisted e-beam evaporation on the performance of polymer light-emitting diodes. ITO was evaporated as a cathode onto a thin Mg:Ag layer by an e-beam process, and its performance as a transparent cathode was subsequently compared to that of Mg:Ag and sputtering-prepared ITO. Polymer devices’ luminance and efficiency were improved by more than ten times by ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD)-prepared ITO deposition, with little observable damage to the organic layer. Implementation of the IBAD process resulted in the reduction of the interfacial energy barrier which induced band bending. Furthermore, outcoupling with ITO resulted in enhanced luminance.