Direct evaluation of contact injection efficiency into small molecule based transport layers: Influence of extrinsic factors

Studies of interface formation on conventional semiconductor materials are typically carried out under relatively pristine conditions. However, for devices based on the use of electronic polymers there is also compelling interest in exploring the variations in contact behavior that might result under realistic manufacturing conditions like multilayer device assembly based on solution coating technology. Small molecule doped polymers (MDPs) developed principally as large area coatings for electrophotographic use are now finding wider device applications. These polymers are insulators capable of transporting excess injected charge with a unipolar drift mobility which can be tuned over a wide range by varying the concentration of transport active species. Most significant in the present context, MDPs can be rendered trap free by molecular design. These unique characteristics of MDPs make it possible to analyze the relative injection efficiencies of their interfaces with various contacts simply by a direct comparison of current-voltage characteristics with time of flight drift mobility measurements carried out on the same film coatings. In this way, and apart from their intrinsic interest and practical value, MDPs and closely related polymeric media provide the ideal venue for the study of contact phenomena on molecular solids. Almost all the present measurements were carried out by measuring dark hole injection from various preformed metal substrates into the MDP film TPD/polycarbonate. Under these circumstances it was found that while injection efficiency nominally scaled with the estimated interfacial energy step then was significant variance that in some cases could be clearly associated with the specific details of interfacial chemistry. For one exceptional case where Au was evaporated on the free surface of an already cast film a time and temperature dependent contact forming process could be delineated in which the interface systematically evolved from emission limited to ohmic. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.