Effects of Doping in Organic Electroluminescent Devices Doped with a Fluorescent Dye

The effect of doping on the energy transfer and charge carrier trapping processes has been studied in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) doped with a fluorescent laser dye. The devices consisted of N,N'-diphenyl-N,N'-bis(3-methylphenyl)-1,1-biphenyl-4,4'-diamine (TPD) as a hole transporting layer, tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum ($Alq_3$) as the host, and a fluorescent dye, 4-dicyanomethylene-2-methyl-6-[2-(2,3,6,7-tetrahydro-1 H,5H-benzo[i,j]quinolizin-8-yl) vinyl]-4H-pyran) (DCM2) as the dopant. Temperature dependence of the current-voltage-luminescence (I-V-L) characteristics, the electroluminescence (EL) and photoluminescence (PL) spectra are studied in the temperature ranging between 15 K and 300 K. The emission from DCM2 was seen to be much stronger compared with the emission from $Alq_3$, indicative of efficient energy transfer from $Alq_3$ to DCM2. In addition, the EL emission from DCM2 increasd with increasing temperature while the emission from the host $Alq_3$ decreased. The result indicates that direct charge carrier trapping becomes efficient with increasing temperature. The EL emission from DCM2 shows a slightly sublinear dependence on the current density, implying the enhanced quenching of excitons at high current densities due to the exciton-exciton annihilation.