Polysilane based ultraviolet light-emitting diodes with improved turn-on voltage, stability and color purity

We demonstrate ultraviolet organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with improved stability, low turn-on voltage and color purity by changing the cathode and annealing temperature of the polymer film. The electron injection process, which limits the electroluminescent performance of organic devices, has been enhanced tremendously by inserting a layer of LiF with appropriate thickness between the cathode and a poly(n-butylphenylsilane) (PS-4) layer, whose device structure is ITO/PEDOT:PSS/polysilane (PS-4)/LiF/Al. Devices with a LiF (6 Å) have the turn-on voltage of 4 V, which is lower than 7 V of devices made with Ca/Al layer. By inserting LiF as the anode interfacial layer, there is increase in the injection of electrons from Al (cathode) side due to tunneling effect and also act as hole blocking layer which enhance the recombination of electron and hole in the emissive layer. PS-4 is spin coated and annealed in vacuum for 1 h at different temperatures (90–120 °C). EL Spectra from these devices consists of white emission along with the UV peak. White emission is significantly suppressed when PS-4 is annealed at higher temperature and threshold voltage is lowest at 110 °C annealing temperature.