RESUMO
Deposition of functionalized nanoparticles onto solid surfaces has created a new revolution in electronic devices. Surface adsorbates such as ionic surfactants or additives are often used to stabilize such nanoparticle suspensions; however, little is presently known about the influence of such surfactants and additives on specific electronic and chemical functionality of nanoparticulate electronic devices. This work combines experimental measurements and theoretical models to probe the role of an ionic surfactant in the fundamental physical chemistry and electronic charge carrier behavior of photodiode devices prepared using multicomponent organic electronic nanoparticles. A large capacitance was detected, which could be subsequently manipulated using the external stimuli of light, temperature, and electric fields. It was demonstrated that analyzing this capacitance through the framework of classical semiconductor analysis produced substantially misleading information on the electronic trap density of the nanoparticles. Electrochemical impedance measurements demonstrated that it is actually the stabilizing surfactant that creates capacitance through two distinct mechanisms, each of which influenced charge carrier behavior differently. The first mechanism involved a dipole layer created at the contact interfaces by mobile ions, a mechanism that could be replicated by addition of ions to solution-cast devices and was shown to be the major origin of restricted electronic performance. The second mechanism consisted of immobile ionic shells around individual nanoparticles and was shown to have a minor impact on device performance as it could be removed upon addition of electronic charge in the photodiodes through either illumination or external bias. The results confirmed that the surfactant ions do not create a significantly increased level of charge carrier traps as has been previously suspected, but rather, preventing the diffusion of mobile ions through the nanoparticulate film and their accumulation at contacts is critical to optimize the performance.
RESUMO
We investigate dynamic formation of nanosheet charge accumulations by heterointerface engineering in double injection layer (DIL) based organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). Our experimental results show that the device performance is considerably improved for the DIL device as the result of heterointerface injection layer (HIIL) formation, in comparison to reference devices, namely, the current density is doubled and even quadrupled and the turn-on voltage is favorably halved, to 3.7 V, which is promising for simple small-molecule OLEDs. The simulation reveals the (i) formation of dynamic p-type doping (DPD) region which treats the quasi Fermi level at the organic/electrode interface, and (ii) formation of dynamic dipole layer (DDL) and the associated electric field at the organic/organic interface which accelerates the ejection of the carriers and their transference to the successive layer. HIIL formation proposes alternate scenarios for device design. For instance, no prerequisite for plasma treatment of transparent anode electrode, our freedom in varying the thicknesses of the organic layers between 10 nm and 60 nm for the first layer and between 6 nm and 24 nm for the second layer. The implications of the present work give insight into the dynamic phenomena in OLEDs and facilitates the development of their inexpensive fabrication for lighting applications.
