In bottom‐contact organic field‐effect transistors (OFETs), the functionalization of source/drain electrodes leads to a tailored surface chemistry for film growth and controlled interface energetics for charge injection. This report describes a comprehensive investigation into separating and correlating the energetic and morphological effects of a self‐assembled monolayers (SAMs) treatment on Au, Ag, and Cu electrodes. Fluorinated 5,11‐bis(triethylsilylethynyl) anthradithiophene (diF‐TES‐ADT) and pentafluorobenzenethiol (PFBT) are employed as a soluble small‐molecule semiconductor and a SAM material, respectively. Upon SAM modification, the Cu electrode devices benefit from a particularly dramatic performance improvement, closely approaching the performance of OFETs with PFBT‐Au and PFBT‐Ag. Ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy, polarized optical microscopy, grazing‐incidence wide‐angle X‐ray scattering elucidate the metal work function change and templated crystal growth with high crystallinity resulting from SAMs. The transmission‐line method separates the channel and contact properties from the measured OFET current–voltage data, which conclusively describes the impact of the SAMs on charge injection and transport behavior.

In this paper, we report two new phenanthroline-based compounds, 1,4-bis­(2-phenyl-1,10-phenanthrolin-4-yl)­benzene (p-bPPhenB) and 1,3-bis­(2-phenyl-1,10-phenanthrolin-4-yl)­benzene (m-bPPhenB), for the charge generation unit of tandem organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). These two compounds exhibited high electron mobility of (5.8–4.4) × 10–3 cm2/(V s), a very small injection barrier at the p–n junction interface, a high glass transition temperature of 123.9–182.1 °C, and exceptionally good operational stability. Because of such excellent characteristics, a single-stack red phosphorescent OLED (PhOLED) with p-bPPhenB showed a low driving voltage (2.7 V) and significantly improved maximum power efficiency (56.8 lm/W), external quantum efficiency (30.8%), and device lifetime (LT95, 130 h) compared to those of the control device using bathophenanthroline (Bphen) (3.7 V, 39 lm/W, 27.1%, and 13 h). Furthermore, a two-stack (tandem) red PhOLED using p-bPPhenB in the charge generation unit exhibited superior charge generation as well as electron transport properties and excellent device performances (5.0 V, 54.0 lm/W, 56.1%) compared to those of the tandem device using Bphen (6.2 V, 45.2 lm/W, 53.3%).

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Dual-functional quantum-dots light emitting diodes (QLEDs) have been fabricated using solution processable vanadium oxide (V2O5) hole injection layer to control the carrier transport behavior. The device shows selectable functionalities of photo-detecting and light-emitting behaviors according to the different operating voltage conditions. The device emitted a bright green light at the wavelength of 536 nm, and with the maximum luminance of 31,668 cd/m2 in a forward bias of 8.6 V. Meanwhile, the device could operate as a photodetector in a reverse bias condition. The device was perfectly turned off in a reverse bias, while an increase of photocurrent was observed during the illumination of 520 nm wavelength light on the device. The interfacial electronic structure of the device prepared with different concentration V2O5 solution was measured in detail using x-ray and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy. Both the highest occupied molecular orbital and the gap state levels were moved closer to the Fermi level, according to increase the concentration of V2O5 solution. The change of gap state position enables to fabricate a dual-functional QLEDs. Therefore, the device could operate both as a photodetector and as a light-emitting diode with different applied bias. The result suggests that QLEDs can be used as a photosensor and as a light-emitting diode for the future display industry.

The impact of anode buffer layers (ABLs) on the performance of CdSe quantum-dot light-emitting diodes (QLED) with a ZnO nanoparticle (NP) electron-transport layer and 4,4′-cyclohexylidenebis[N,N-bis(4-methylphenyl)benzenamine] (TAPC) hole-transport layer was studied. Either MoO3 or 1,4,5,8,9,11-hexaazatriphenylene hexacarbonitrile (HAT-CN) was used as the ABL. The QLED with a HAT-CN ABL exhibited better luminance performance, while the ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy and hole-only devices indicated that MoO3 was a superior hole injector. These results suggest that the QLED with a MoO3 ABL suffered from a severe charge carrier imbalance. Therefore, electron injection through the ZnO NP layer must be improved to further enhance the QLED performance.

Using ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS), we have measured the energy level offset at the planar interface between poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and C61-butyric acid methylester (PCBM). Gradual deposition of PCBM onto spin-coated P3HT in high vacuum was made possible by using electrospray vacuum deposition (EVD). The UPS measurement of EVD-prepared planar interface resulted in the energy level offset of 0.91 eV between P3HT HOMO and PCBM LUMO, which is considered as the upper limit of Voc of the organic photovoltaic cells.

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The performance of the quantum-dot light-emitting diodes was improved by using an organic–inorganic hybrid hole injection layer.