Improving the performance of doped π-conjugated polymers for use in organic light-emitting diodes

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) represent a promising technology for large, flexible, lightweight, flat-panel displays1,2,3. Such devices consist of one or several semiconducting organic layer(s) sandwiched between two electrodes. When an electric field is applied, electrons are injected by the cathode into the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital of the adjacent molecules (simultaneously, holes are injected by the anode into the highest occupied molecular orbital). The two types of carriers migrate towards each other and a fraction of them recombine to form excitons, some of which decay radiatively to the ground state by spontaneous emission. Doped π-conjugated polymer layers improve the injection of holes in OLED devices4,5,6,7,8,9; this is thought to result from the more favourable work function of these injection layers compared with the more commonly used layer material (indium tin oxide). Here we demonstrate that by increasing the doping level of such polymers, the barrier to hole injection can be continuously reduced. The use of combinatorial devices allows us to quickly screen for the optimum doping level. We apply this concept in OLED devices with hole-limited electroluminescence (such as polyfluorene-based systems10,11,12), finding that it is possible to significantly reduce the operating voltage while improving the light output and efficiency.