An ultrathin, ultrasmooth and flexible Au film as an alternative of the indium-tin oxide (ITO) electrode in organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) has been reported. The 7 nm Au film shows excellent surface morphology, optical and electronic characteristics including a root-mean-square roughness of 0.35 nm, a high transparency of 72% at 550 nm, and a sheet resistance of 23.75 Ω sq(-1). These features arise from the surface modification of the glass substrate by using a SU-8 film, which fixes metal atoms via chemical bond interactions between Au and SU-8 film to suppress the island growth mode. A 17% enhancement in current efficiency has been obtained from the OLEDs based on the ultrathin Au electrodes compared to that of the devices with the ITO electrodes. The OLEDs with the ultrathin Au/SU-8 anodes exhibit high flexibility and mechanical robustness.
Lightweight and low-cost organic photovoltaics (OPVs) hold great promise as renewable energy sources. The most critical challenge in developing high-performance OPVs is the incomplete photon absorption due to the low diffusion length of the carrier in organic semiconductors. To date, various attempts have been carried out to improve light absorption in thin photoactive layer based on optical engineering strategies. Nanostructureinduced light harvesting in OPVs offers an attractive solution to realize high-performance OPVs, via the effects of antireflection, plasmonic scattering, surface plasmon polarization, localized surface plasmon resonance and optical cavity. In this review article, we summarize recent advances in nanostructure-induced light harvesting in OPVs and discuss various light-trapping strategies by incorporating nanostructures in OPVs and the fabrication processing of the micro-patterns with high resolution, large area, high yield and low cost.
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