Carrier Transport of Quantum Dot LED with Low-Work Function PEIE Polymer

Recently, colloidal core/shell type quantum dots lighting-emitting diodes (QDLEDs) have been extensively studied and developed for the future of optoelectronic applications. In the work, we fabricate an inverted CdSe/ZnS quantum dot (QD) based light-emitting diodes (QDLED)[1]. In order to reduce work function of indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode for inverted structure, a very thin (<10 nm) polyethylenimine ethoxylated (PEIE) is used as surface modifier[2] instead of conventional metal oxide electron injection layer. The PEIE layer substantially reduces the work function of ITO electrodes which is estimated to be 3.08 eV by ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (UPS). From transmission electron microscopy (TEM) study, CdSe/ZnS QDs are uniformly distributed and formed by a monolayer on PEIE layer. In this inverted QD LED, two kinds of hybrid organic materials, [poly (9,9-di-n-octyl-fluorene-alt-benzothiadiazolo)(F8BT) + poly(N,N'-bis (4-butylphenyl)-N,N'-bis(phenyl)benzidine (poly-TPD)] and [4,4'-N,N'-dicarbazole-biphenyl (CBP) + poly-TPD], were adopted as hole transport layer having high highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) level for improving hole transport ability. At a low-operating voltage of 8 V, the device emits orange and red spectral radiation with high brightness up to 2450 and 1420 cd/m2, and luminance efficacy of 1.4 cd/A and 0.89 cd/A, respectively, at 7 V applied bias. Also, the carrier transport mechanisms for the QD LEDs are described by using several models to fit the experimental I-V data.