Determination of the width of the carrier recombination zone in organic light-emitting diodes

Bilayer organic light-emitting diodes based on tris-(8-hydroxyquinolinato) aluminum III have been fabricated where the thickness of the light-emitting layer was varied between 10 and 80 nm while maintaining a constant total thickness of the organic layers. The electroluminescence quantum efficiency of the devices was measured as a function of the emitter thickness, and used to determine the width of the carrier recombination zone at different electric fields. The width of the carrier recombination zone is found to decrease with an increase in electric field [from 70 nm (E=0.75 MV/cm) to 40 nm (E=1.0 MV/cm)]. It is also related to the field-dependent carrier injection efficiency. An estimate of the light output coupling factor (0.4) is also given based on this analysis. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.