Self-organized gradient hole injection to improve the performance of organic light-emitting diodes

We demonstrate a new approach to form gradient hole injection layer (HIL) in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Single spincoating of hole-injecting conducting polymer compositions with a perfluorinated ionomer results in gradient workfunction through the layer by self-organization, which lead to remarkably efficient single layer polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs) (${\sim}21$ cd/A). The device lifetime was significantly improved (${\sim50$ times) compared with the conventional hole injection layer, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxy-thiophene)/polystyrene sulfonate. This solution processed HIL also produced dramatically enhanced luminous efficiency (${\sim}34$ cd/A) in vacuum- deposited green fluorescent OLEDs while the vacuum deposited HIL gave the luminous efficiency of ${\sim}23$ cd/A in the same device structure.