Improved blue light-emitting polymeric device by the tuning of drift mobility and charge balance

We have prepared blue polymer-small molecule hybrid electroluminescence devices with improved efficiency and lower driving voltage by the statistical design method. Analysis of time-of-flight measurement shows that amorphous small molecule hole-transporter blended with a blue light-emitting polymer increases the field-dependent hole mobility, with transition from nondispersive to dispersive transport induced by the charge-trapping effect. Moreover, at the electroluminescent devices with different electron injection/transport layer (LiF/Al, LiF/Ca/Al, and Alq(3)/LiF/Al), efficiency was further increased. We have analyzed that carrier mobility of a multilayered device can also be controlled by the change of electron injection and transport layers. We find that structural design and matching overall charge balance is an essential factor to improve both the operating voltage and efficiency of existing blue polymer devices. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.