On the role of polar molecules and the barrier for charge injection in OLEDs

Many electron transport layer materials (ETL) employed in state of the art organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) are known to be polar. We combine for the first time simulations and electrical characterization of OLEDs based on polar ETL, in order to understand the impact of such materials on the device operation. Depending on the orientation of the dipole orientation, simulations predict either a benefit or a disadvantage of the polar ETL for the device performance. We also show that OLEDs featuring a polar material are perfectly suited for extracting mobility activation energy and Injection barrier from the anode to the ETL.