Transient electroluminescence of polymer light emitting diodes using electrical pulses

Detailed experimental and theoretical analysis of the pulsed excitation of polymer light emitting diodes is presented. We find a set of universal transient features for a variety of device configurations (different polymers/cathodes) which can be reproduced using our phenomenological numerical model. We find that the temporal evolution of the electroluminescence in response to a step voltage pulse is characterized by: (i) a delay followed by; (ii) a fast initial rise at turn-on followed by; (iii) a slow rise (slower by at least one order of magnitude). The large mobility mismatch between holes and electrons in conjugated polymers allows us to separately time resolve the motion of holes and electrons. We suggest a method for extracting mobility values that takes into account the possible field-induced broadening of carrier fronts, and which is found to be compatible with mobilities determined from constant wave measurements. By using appropriate device configurations it is possible to determine the mobilities of both holes and electrons from a single device. Mobilities for holes and electrons are extracted for a poly(p-phenylenevinylene) copolymer and poly(di-octyl fluorene). (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)07621-5].