Electron affinities of organic materials used for organic light-emitting diodes: A low-energy inverse photoemission study

•Electron affinities of 29 materials for organic light emitting diode are determined.•A new technique, low-energy inverse photoemission spectroscopy is used.•The determined values are 1 eV smaller than those frequently referred.•The values are compared with those by other experimental and theoretical methods.

The electron affinity (EA) of an organic semiconductor is a measure of the electron transport level. Although reliable values of the EA are required for designing the device architecture of organic light-emitting diodes (OLED), there were no appropriate methods. Recently we have developed low-energy inverse photoemission spectroscopy which enables us to determine the EA of organic materials in solid with the precision required for research of OLED. Using this new technique, we precisely determined EA of typical OLED materials, TCTA, CBP, Ir(ppy)3, BCP, Alq3 and Liq as well as a newly developed dopant 4CzIPN. The obtained electron affinities are generally smaller by about 1 eV than the commonly believed values urging the reconsideration of the electron injection/transport mechanisms in OLED. We also compare EAs determined by various experimental and calculation methods for 29 materials. The results show that the reduction potential gives a reasonable estimate rather than the optical gap and ionization energy.

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