The effect of ITO surface energy on OLED electrical properties

Abstract

Two simple empirical models are proposed in order to relate the ITO surface chemical physical properties to the OLED electrical behaviour. Two different organic active layer have been deposited over the ITO substrate: evaporated small organic molecule or spun polymer. In the first case it has emerged that the device current depends on the ITO surface energy through an exponential law, while in the second it is the anode potential barrier that is influenced by the surface energy decreasing. These models allow to tune the device electrical characteristics changing the materials technological features.

Fully-Sprayed and Flexible Organic Photodiodes with Transparent Carbon Nanotube Electrodes

“…As reported in the literature, oxygen plasma treatment is known to ameliorate the wettability of many materials used as thin films in nanoelectronics, such as P3HT:PCBM, ITO, and of CNTs . The natural first choice was hence trying a mild oxygen plasma treatment which is strong enough to activate the CNT surface but mild enough to prevent noticeable damage to the film.…”

The effect of doping on low temperature growth of high quality GaAs nanowires on polycrystalline films

“…Nanowire formation via the VLS growth mode requires that the catalyst forms isolated droplets on the surface. At growth temperatures of 400°C, the deposited Au film is a solid, but because it forms a eutectic alloy, it melts upon the introduction of Ga.[61] ITO has a lower surface energy (0.02–0.03J/m 2 )[62,63] compared to Au-Ga (1.15 J/m 2 ),[64] resulting in dewetting of the catalyst. Pt, on the other hand, has a much higher surface energy (2.3–2.8 J/m 2 )[65,66], thus exhibits a decreased tendency for droplet formation.…”

Investigation of the Stability and Biocompatibility of Commonly Used Electrode Materials in Organic Neurooptoelectronics

“…A.F and P.L. are with the Institute for Nanoelectronics, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany [1][2][3][4], organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) [5][6][7], organic transistors (OT) [8] -or more generally devices requiring controlled charge injection into or extraction from an organic semiconductorstrongly depend on achieving adequate conductance and energy level alignment [4,9]. Furthermore, new device applications for sensing and actuation of cell bioelectrical and biochemical activity have a high need for transparency to ensure compatibility with established techniques of biological laboratories, such as fluorescence microscopy [10].…”

“…Here we have carried out a systematic and comprehensive study on the long term stability of planar electrode materials commonly used in such optoelectronics devices [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19], with the aim of delineating potential benefits and limitations for electrode use. Specifically, we assess how prolonged immersion of gold (Au), silver (Ag), aluminum (Al) and Indium-Tin-Oxide (ITO) thin films in different media (DI water, Phosphate Buffer Solution and cell culturing medium) causes changes over time in their characteristics, and hence determines their suitability for bioelectronic applications.…”