Individually addressable submicron scale light-emitting devices based on electroluminescence of solid Ru(bpy)3(CIO4)2 films

A submicron light-emitting device (LED) was fabricated from lithographically fabricated parallel indium-tin oxide (ITO) finger electrodes (0.9 μm wide) separated by a 1.1 μm gap. A single layer of an amorphous (a) Ru(bpy)3(ClO4)2 film (∼100 nm thick) was spin-coated on the electrode array. Ga:In or carbon paste was employed as a liftable upper contact electrode. Films (∼1.5 μm thick) of single-crystal Ru(bpy)3(ClO4)2 (xyl) between two ITO electrodes in a sandwich cell were also prepared and produce electroluminescence. As with larger cells of this type, the high-resolution electroluminescence produced showed a high external efficiency (∼3.4%), a low turn-on voltage (2.3 V), and reasonable stability. The single-crystal cells also behaved as photovoltaic devices and a short-circuit photocurrent was observed when they were irradiated without a bias voltage. Copyright © 2002 American Chemical Society.