ABSTRACT
We herein report a homogeneous [6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) layer, produced by a solution process of horizontal-dipping (H-dipping) to improve the photovoltaic (PV) effects of bilayer heterojunction organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs) based on a bi-stacked poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) electron donor layer and a PCBM electron acceptor layer (P3HT/PCBM). It was shown that a homogeneous and uniform coating of PCBM layers in the P3HT/PCBM bilayer OPVs resulted in reliable and reproducible device performance. We recorded a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 2.89%, which is higher than that (2.00%) of bilayer OPVs with a spin-coated PCBM layer. Moreover, introducing surfactant additives of poly(oxyethylene tridecyl ether) (PTE) into the homogeneous P3HT/PCBM PV layers resulted in the bilayer OPVs showing a PCE value of 3.95%, which is comparable to those of conventional bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) OPVs (3.57-4.13%) fabricated by conventional spin-coating. This improved device performance may be attributed to the selective collection of charge carriers at the interfaces among the active layers and electrodes due to the PTE additives as well as the homogeneous formation of the functional PCBM layer on the P3HT layer. Furthermore, H-dip-coated PCBM layers were deposited onto aligned P3HT layers by a rubbing technique, and the rubbed bilayer OPV exhibited improved in-plane anisotropic PV effects with PCE anisotropy as high as 1.81, which is also higher than that (1.54) of conventional rubbed BHJ OPVs. Our results suggest that the use of the H-dip-coating process in the fabrication of PCBM layers with the PTE interface-engineering additive could be of considerable interest to those seeking to improve PCBM-based opto-electrical organic thin-film devices.
ABSTRACT
We herein present the results of a study of the direct fabrication of buckled patterns in flexible organic light-emitting devices (FOLEDs) that had a conducting polymer anode on a polyethersulfone substrate. These patterns were produced spontaneously by the thermal deposition of an aluminum cathode on an electroluminescent (EL) composite layer. The polymer used for the anode was modified poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) and the EL layer was composed of a solution-processable small molecular composite including phosphorescent Iridium complex mixed with a poly(vinylcarbazole) host. It is shown that FOLEDs produced with buckled patterns can exhibit a luminance as high as ca. 14,900 cd/m(2) with a peak efficiency of 50.5 cd/A. The patterned structure formed by the buckling of the EL layer allows FOLEDs to be produced with a high peak external quantum efficiency of 15% with an increase in light extraction by a factor of ca. 3.1. These results show that spontaneous buckling yields patterned structures that offer considerable promise for the production of high performance, reproducible and reliable FOLEDs.
ABSTRACT
We present results that show highly polarized electroluminescence (EL) from an organic light-emitting device (OLED) by using a quarter-wave (λ/4) retardation plate (QWP) film and a giant birefringent optical (GBO) photonic reflective polarizer. Polarized EL light of 13,400 cd/m(2) with high peak efficiencies (greater than 10 cd/A and 3.5 lm/W) was obtained from an OLED in this way. These values are almost double those of a polarized OLED that only uses a polarizer. The direction of polarization of the emitted EL light from the polarized OLED corresponded to the passing axis of the GBO reflective polarizer. Furthermore, the degree of linear polarization obtained, i.e. the ratio between the brightness of two linearly polarized EL emissions parallel and perpendicular to the passing axis, is greater than 40 over the whole range of emitted luminance.
