A novel electroluminescent device is constructed using organic materials as the emitting elements. The diode has a double-layer structure of organic thin films, prepared by vapor deposition. Efficient injection of holes and electrons is provided from an indium-tin-oxide anode and an alloyed Mg:Ag cathode. Electron-hole recombination and green electroluminescent emission are confined near the organic interface region. High external quantum efficiency (1% photon/electron), luminous efficiency (1.5 lm/W), and brightness (>1000 cd/m2) are achievable at a driving voltage below 10 V.

A thin-film, two-layer organic photovoltaic cell has been fabricated from copper phthalocyanine and a perylene tetracarboxylic derivative. A power conversion efficiency of about 1% has been achieved under simulated AM2 illumination. A novel feature of the device is that the charge-generation efficiency is relatively independent of the bias voltage, resulting in cells with fill factor values as high as 0.65. The interface between the two organic materials, rather than the electrode/organic contacts, is crucial in determining the photovoltaic properties of the cell.

Electroluminescent (EL) devices are constructed using multilayer organic thin films. The basic structure consists of a hole-transport layer and a luminescent layer. The hole-transport layer is an amorphous diamine film in which the only mobile carrier is the hole. The luminescent layer consists of a host material, 8-hydroxyquinoline aluminum (Alq), which predominantly transports electrons. High radiance has been achieved at an operating voltage of less than 10 V. By doping the Alq layer with highly fluorescent molecules, the EL efficiency has been improved by about a factor of 2 in comparison with the undoped cell. Representative dopants are coumarins and DCMs. The EL quantum efficiency of the doped system is about 2.5%, photon/electron. The EL colors can be readily tuned from the blue-green to orange-red by a suitable choice of dopants as well as by changing the concentration of the dopant. In the doped system the electron-hole recombination and emission zones can be confined to about 50 Å near the hole-transport interface. In the undoped Alq, the EL emission zone is considerably larger due to exciton diffusion. The multilayer doped EL structure offers a simple means for the direct determination of exciton diffusion length.

A bilayer is used as an electrode for organic electroluminescent devices. The bilayer consists of an ultrathin LiF layer adjacent to an electron-transporting layer and an aluminum outerlayer. Devices with the bilayer electrode showed enhanced electron injection and high electroluminescence efficiency as compared with a Mg0.9Ag0.1 cathode. Similar effects were observed when replacing MgO for LiF. The improvements are attributed to band bending of the organic layer in contact with the dielectrics.

Highly stable organic electroluminescent devices based on vapor-deposited Alq thin films have been achieved. The improvement in stability is derived from several factors including: (1) a multilayer thin-film structure with a CuPc stabilized hole-injection contact, (2) a hole-transport diamine layer using a naphthyl-substituted benzidine derivative, and (3) an ac drive wave form. These emissive devices have shown an operational half-lifetime of about 4000 h from an initial luminance of 510 cd/m2.

We used ultraviolet and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and (UPS) techniques to directly measure absolute values of vacuum work function of indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films. We obtained a work function of 4.4–4.5 eV which is lower than the commonly cited value. These values do not change substantially by heating and Ar ion sputtering. The atomic concentrations of each element in ITO, measured with XPS, are also quite stable under heat treatment and ion sputtering.

Tandem organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), with multiple electroluminescent (EL) units connected electrically in series, have been fabricated. Using an optically transparent doped organic “p-n” junction as the connecting unit between adjacent EL units, excellent light out-coupling and carrier-injection properties have been realized. The luminous efficiency is found to scale almost linearly with the number of EL units in the stack, giving values as high as 32 or 136 cd/A for a three-unit tandem OLED using a fluorescent or a phosphorescent emitter, respectively.

Remarkable improvement in stability has been demonstrated in an organic electroluminescent (EL) device using a doped emitter consisting of 8-hydroxyquinoline aluminum (Alq) as the host and N,N-dimethylquinacridone (DMQA) as the emissive dopant. A luminance half-life on the order of about 7500 h has been achieved in the DMQA/Alq EL device, operating under a constant current of 20 mA/cm2 and starting at a high luminance of 1400 cd/m2. The improved stability was attributed to the elimination of intermolecular hydrogen bonding between the dopant molecules.