Influence of the thickness and doping of the emission layer on the performance of organic light-emitting diodes with PiN structure

We have studied the behavior of various intrinsic emission zones on the characteristics of organic light-emitting diodes with a p-doped hole-transport layer and an n-doped electron-transport layer based on our previous work [J. S. Huang, M. Pfeiffer, A. Werner, J. Blochwitz, K. Leo, and S. Liu, Appl. Phys. Lett. 80, 139 (2002)]. This configuration is referred to as a PiN structure. Because the p- and n-doped regions occupy nearly 80% of the total thickness in our PiN device, the intrinsic region becomes a narrow layer between two doped regions. This intrinsic region includes the region where the radiative recombination occurs. Thus, the nature of this layer plays an important role in determining the actual device performance. Employing 8-tris-hydroxyquinoline aluminum as an emitter, we investigated the influence of the thickness of the emitter layer on the performance of the device. The optimum thickness of the emitter layer is found to be 20 nm. Combining the fluorescence dye doping method, we have optimized the PiN structure device. Two emitter systems have been used: Alq(3) doped with two highly fluorescent laser dyes, Quinacridone or Coumarin 6, respectively. We have demonstrated the influence of the thickness and the doping of the emission zone on the characteristics of a doped emitter device with PiN structure, and obtained higher-efficiency PiN structure devices. The different properties of PiN devices corresponding to two different emitter dopants with different trapping effect are also discussed. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.