Fabrication of tunable [Al2O3:Alucone] thin-film encapsulations for top-emitting organic light-emitting diodes with high performance optical and barrier properties

•[Al2O3:Alucone] films were fabricated by low temperature atomic/molecule layer deposition method.•Inorganic–organic nanolaminate structure allows the optical properties to be tuned.•[Al2O3:Alucone] encapsulation layers improved the lifetime of TEOLEDs.

The optical and barrier properties of thin-film encapsulations (TFEs) for top-emitting organic light-emitting diodes (TEOLEDs) were investigated using TFEs fabricated by stacking multiple sets of inorganic–organic layers. The inorganic moisture barrier layers were prepared by atomic layer deposition (ALD) of Al2O3 using trimethylaluminum (TMA) and O3 as precursors and are shown to be efficient barriers against gases and vapors. The organic alucone layers were produced by molecular layer deposition (MLD) using TMA and ethylene glycol as precursors. The [Al2O3:Alucone] ALD/MLD films were used because their adjustable inorganic–organic nanolaminate composition allows for the tuning of the optical properties, thereby enhancing their application potential for the design and fabrication of high performance light out-coupling structures for TEOLEDs. By carefully adjusting the relative thickness ratio of the inorganic–organic encapsulation materials, optimized light extraction was achieved and the films not only maintained their high moisture barrier strength but also showed excellent optical performance.

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