Influence of p-doping hole transport layer on the performance of organic light-emitting devices

We have demonstrated devices based on a p-doped layer consisting of 4,4',4''-tris(3-methylphenylphenylamono) triphenylamine (m-MTDATA) and tetrafluro-tetracyano-quinodimethane (F4-TCNQ) as a hole transport layer (HTL). The typical device structure is ITO/m-MTDATA: x% F4-TCNQ (40 nm)/N, N'-bis-[1-naphthy(-N, N' diphenyl-1,1'-biphenyl-4,4'-diamine)] (NPB) (10 nm)/tris (8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq3) (50 nm)/LiF (10 nm)/Al (100 nm). Hole-only devices, where the current only consists of holes, are fabricated to observe the apparent improvement in the conductivity of the p-doped layers. We have observed that such layers lead to a striking improvement of the electrical properties of organic light-emitting devices. In particular, the electroluminescent onset voltage is observed to decrease continuously with increasing doping ratio and is greatly reduced compared to diodes with undoped layers. We have seen that the driving voltage of device 3 (m-MTDATA:4% F4-TCNQ) is reduced ~56% as compared with that of the control device (undoped). This improvement has been attributed to the increased conductivity of the p-doping hole transport layer. It is found that the current efficiency also decreases with increasing doping ratio. This can be attributed to the charge imbalance in the emission layer due to the excess hole injection.