Charge conduction study of phosphorescent iridium compounds for organic light-emitting diodes application

The charge conduction properties of a series of iridium-based compounds for phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have been investigated by thin-film transistor (TFT) technique. These compounds include four homoleptic compounds: Ir(ppy)₃, Ir(piq)₃, Ir(Tpa-py)₃, Ir(Cz-py)₃, and two heteroleptic compounds Ir(Cz-py)₂(acac) and FIrpic. Ir(ppy)₃, Ir(piq)₃ and FIrpic are commercially available compounds, while Ir(Tpa-py)₃, Ir(Cz-py)₃ and Ir(Cz-py)₂(acac) are specially designed to test their conductivities with respect to the commercial compounds. In neat films, with the exception of FIrpic, all Ir-compounds possess significant hole transporting capabilities, with hole mobilities in the range of about 5 × 10⁻⁶–2 × 10⁻⁵ cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹. FIrpic, however, is non-conducting as revealed by TFT measurements. We further investigate how Ir-compounds modify carrier transport as dopants when they are doped into a phosphorescent host material CBP. The commercial compounds are chosen for the investigation. Small amounts of Ir(ppy)₃ and Ir(piq)₃ (<10%) behave as hole traps when they are doped into CBP. The hole conduction of the doped CBP films can be reduced by as much as 4 orders of magnitude. Percolating conduction of Ir-compounds occurs when the doping concentrations of the Ir-compounds exceed 10%, and the hole mobilities gradually increase as their values reach those of the neat Ir films. In contrast to Ir(ppy)₃ and Ir(piq)₃, FIrpic does not participate in hole conduction when it is doped into CBP. The hole mobility decreases monotonically as the concentration of FIrpic increases due to the increase of the average charge hopping distance in CBP.     

Proton irradiation of CdTe thin film photovoltaics deposited on cerium‐doped space glass

Space photovoltaics is dominated by multi‐junction (III‐V) technology. However, emerging applications will require solar arrays with high specific power (kW/kg), flexibility in stowage and deployment, and a significantly lower cost than the current III‐V technology offers. This research demonstrates direct deposition of thin film CdTe onto the radiation‐hard cover glass that is normally laminated to any solar cell deployed in space. Four CdTe samples, with 9 defined contact device areas of 0.25 cm², were irradiated with protons of 0.5‐MeV energy and varying fluences. At the lowest fluence, 1 × 10¹² cm⁻², the relative efficiency of the solar cells was 95%. Increasing the proton fluence to 1 × 10¹³ cm⁻² and then 1 × 10¹⁴ cm⁻² decreased the solar cell efficiency to 82% and 4%, respectively. At the fluence of 1 × 10¹³ cm⁻², carrier concentration was reduced by an order of magnitude. Solar Cell Capacitance Simulator (SCAPS) modelling obtained a good fit from a reduction in shallow acceptor concentration with no change in the deep trap defect concentration. The more highly irradiated devices resulted in a buried junction characteristic of the external quantum efficiency, indicating further deterioration of the acceptor doping. This is explained by compensation from interstitial H⁺ formed by the proton absorption. An anneal of the 1 × 10¹⁴ cm⁻² fluence devices gave an efficiency increase from 4% to 73% of the pre‐irradiated levels, indicating that the compensation was reversible. CdTe with its rapid recovery through annealing demonstrates a radiation hardness to protons that is far superior to conventional multi‐junction III‐V solar cells.     

High electron mobility triazine for lower driving voltage and higher efficiency organic light emitting devices

The triazine compound 4,4′-bis-[2-(4,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-triazinyl)]-1,1′-biphenyl (BTB) was developed for use as an electron transport material in organic light emitting devices (OLEDs). The material demonstrates an electron mobility of ∼7.2 × 10⁻⁴ cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ at a field of 8.00 × 10⁵ V cm⁻¹, which is 10-fold greater than that of the widely used material tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (AlQ₃). OLEDs with a BTB electron transport layer showed a ∼1.7–2.5 V lower driving voltage and a significantly increased efficiency, compared to those with AlQ₃. These results suggest that BTB has a strong potential for use as an OLED electron transport layer material.     

Characterization of deep defects in boron-doped CVD diamond films using transient photocapacitance method

We have developed a highly-sensitive transient photocapacitance measurement (TPM) system for deep defects in wide bandgap materials, and applied it to characterize the boron-doped diamond films grown on a high-pressure/high-temperature-synthesized Ib diamond substrate using high-power-density microwave-plasma chemical vapor deposition method. The developed TPM system has both a low detection limit of less than 0.5 fF for changes in the photocapacitance and a low measurement temperature drift of less than 0.03 K in 12 h. By using the TPM system, we have successfully found an acceptor-type defect around 1.2 eV above the valence-band maximum for the B-doped diamond film with a considerably high crystalline quality that had some strong exciton emission peaks in the cathodoluminescence spectra taken at ≈80 K. The photoionization cross section and the defect density estimated for the observed defect were 3.1×10^–15 cm² and 2.8×10¹⁶ cm⁻³, respectively.     

Gap states density measurement in copper oxide thin films

The density of gap states near the Fermi level have been measured in copper oxide (CuO) thin films deposited by spray pyrolysis technique. The measurement method is based on the exploitation of the current–voltage characteristics of the space charge limited current (SCLC) measured in a sandwich Au/CuO/Au structure. The measured gap states density is equal to 1.5×10¹⁴ cm⁻³ and 2.0×10¹⁴ eV⁻¹ respectively in films prepared at 300 and 400 °C substrate temperature, while the defect position are located at 16 and 20 meV above Fermi level. The carriers mobility and concentration are also determined from SCLC, the obtained results are in good agreement with Hall effect measurement ones.     

Silicon-based electron-transport materials with high thermal stability and triplet energy for efficient phosphorescent OLEDs

A series of electron transporting materials was designed and used in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), exhibiting green phosphorescence. We used the tetrahedral structural motif of silicon atom, which annulated with the 1,2-diphenyl-benzoimidazole (DBI) units in its periphery (1–4) and their thermal, photophysical, and electrochemical properties were investigated. Among the series, the X-ray crystal structure of compound 1 was obtained and investigated. Photophysical and electrochemical properties showed that their LUMO levels can be slightly tuned as increasing number of DBI units and enhancing the electron injection capability. Furthermore, thermal stability correlated well with an increase in the number of DBI units, showing a gradual increase in T_g values in the range of 100–141 °C. The electron-only devices (EOD) based on compounds 2 and 3 were fabricated; EOD device with compound 3 showed higher current densities at the same voltages, indicating higher electron transport (ET) capability compared to compound 2. The electron mobilities (μ) of compounds 2 and 3 were estimated as 1.93 × 10⁻⁵ cm²/V and 3.67 × 10⁻⁵ cm²/V at 1 MV/cm, respectively. We further investigated the excellent ET property of compound 3 via the phosphorescent OLEDs in which the electron-transporting material (ETM) was coupled with the green emitter, Ir(ppy)₃. Finally, we compared it with the device based on compound 2. The OLEDs device with compound 3 exhibited maximum current and external quantum efficiencies of 62.8 cd/A and 18.0%, respectively, with a small efficiency roll-off at high current densities.     

Effects of RTA temperatures on conductivity and micro-structures of boron-doped silicon nanocrystals in Si-rich oxide thin films

In this work, the B-doped Si rich oxide (SRO) thin films were deposited and then annealed using rapid thermal annealing (RTA) to form SiO₂-matrix silicon nanocrystals (Si NCs). The effects of the RTA temperatures on the structural properties, conduction mechanisms and electrical properties of B-doped SRO thin films (BSF) were investigated systematically using Hall measurements, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. Results showed that the crystalline fraction of annealed BSF increased from 41.3% to 62.8%, the conductivity was increased from 4.48×10⁻³ S/cm to 0.16 s/cm, the carrier concentration was increased from 8.74×10¹⁷ cm⁻³ to 4.9×10¹⁸ cm⁻³ and the carrier mobility was increased from 0.032 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ to 0.2 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ when the RTA temperatures increased from 1050 °C to 1150 °C. In addition, the fluctuation induced tunneling (FIT) theory was applicable to the conduction mechanisms of SiO₂-matrix boron-doped Si-NC thin films.     

Nickel Ohmic Contacts to N-Implanted (0001) 4H-SiC

Samples for transmission line model (TLM) and Hall measurements were fabricated on (0001) 4H-SiC implanted with nitrogen at 1 × 10¹⁸ cm⁻³, 4 × 10¹⁸ cm⁻³, 1 × 10¹⁹ cm⁻³, 4 × 10¹⁹ cm⁻³, and 1 × 10²⁰ cm⁻³. Following high-temperature activation, the activation percentage dropped from ~90% to ~20%, and the Hall mobility decreased from ~100 cm²/V · s to ~20 cm²/V · s as the implant concentration increased from 1 × 10¹⁸ cm⁻³ to 1 × 10²⁰ cm⁻³. The specific contact resistance as a function of Hall concentration is compared with published data for Ni contacts to epitaxial layers. The specific contact resistance as a function of activation temperature was also studied for two fixed implant concentrations of 5 × 10¹⁸ cm⁻³ and 1 × 10²⁰ cm⁻³.     

Management of Host–Guest Triplet Exciton Distribution for Stable,High-Efficiency,Low Roll-Off Solution-Processed Blue Organic Light-Emitting Diodes by Employing Triplet-Energy-Mediated Hosts

High-quality hosts are indispensable for simultaneously realizing stable, high efficiency, and low roll-off blue solution-processed organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Herein, three solution processable bipolar hosts with successively reduced triplet energies approaching the T₁ state of thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitter are developed and evaluated for high-performance blue OLED devices. The smaller T₁ energy gap between host and guest allows the quenching of long-lived triplet excitons to reduce exciton concentration inside the device, and thus suppresses singlet-triplet and triplet-triplet annihilations. Triplet-energy-mediated hosts with high enough T₁ and better charge balance in device facilitate high exciton utilization efficiency and uniform triplet exciton distribution among host and TADF guest. Benefited from these synergetic factors, a high maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE_max) of 20.8%, long operational lifetime (T₅₀ of 398.3 h @ 500 cd m⁻²), and negligible efficiency roll-off (EQE of 20.1% @ 1000 cd m⁻²) are achieved for bluish-green TADF OLEDs. Additionally introducing a narrowband emission multiple-resonance TADF material as terminal emitter to accelerate exciton dynamic and improve exciton utilization, a higher EQE_max of 23.1%, suppressed roll-off and extended lifetime of 456.3 h are achieved for the sky-blue sensitized OLEDs at the same brightness.     

Efficient hole-transporter for phosphorescent organic light emitting diodes with a simple molecular structure

N,N-diphenyl-4-(quinolin-8-yl)aniline (SQTPA), which composes a triphenylamine group and a quinoline group, has been synthesized and employed as a hole-transporter in phosphorescent OLEDs. It has been proved that SQTPA has efficient hole-transport property with a hole-mobility of 3.60 × 10⁻⁵ cm²/V s at the electric field of 800 (V/cm)^1/2, which is higher than that of NPB (1.93 × 10⁻⁵ cm²/V s). Blue, orange and green phosphorescent OLEDs have been fabricated based on FIrpic, Ir(2-phq)₃, Ir(ppy)₃ with typical structures by using SQTPA as the hole-transporter. The SQTPA-based devices show maximum external quantum efficiencies and power efficiencies of 17.5%, 32.5 lm/W for blue, 12.3%, 20.5 lm/W for orange and 20.3%, 64.5 lm/W for green. The performances of SQTPA-based devices are much better than that of NPB-based phosphorescent OLEDs with similar structures. Thought of its very simple molecular structure and easy synthetic route, SQTPA should be an efficient hole-transporter for phosphorescent OLEDs.     

Effect of electron irradiation on morphological,compositional and electrical properties of nanocluster carbon thin films grown using room temperature based cathodic arc process for large area microelectronics

The influence of 8 MeV electron beam bombardment on room temperature grown nanocluster carbon using cathodic arc process has been studied here. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) study shows that surface roughness varies with varying electron doses. High doses of electrons could causes thermal induce graphitization and morphological changes in the films. Raman spectroscopy analysis reveals that G-peak vary from 1555 cm⁻¹ to 1570 cm⁻¹ and D-peak varying from 1361 cm⁻¹ to 1365 cm⁻¹ indicating the disorderness and presence of both graphitic and diamond-like phases. Room temperature conductivity changes by two to three orders in magnitude. The conductivity in the films could be due to conduction of charge carriers through neighboring islands of conductive chains. Defect states calculated using the differential technique varies from 8 × 10¹⁷cm⁻³ eV⁻¹ to 1.5 × 10¹⁹ cm⁻³ eV⁻¹. Irradiation of nanocluster carbon thin films could be helpful to tune the electrical properties and defect densities of the nanocluster carbon films for various large area, flexible electronic and nano electronic applications.     

Electrical and photovoltaic properties of SnSe/Si heterojunction

Thin film of SnSe is deposited on n-Si single crystal to fabricate a p-SnSe/n-Si heterojunction photovoltaic cell. Electrical and photoelectrical properties have been studied by the current density–voltage (J–V) and capacitance–voltage (C–V) measurements at different temperatures. The fabricated cell exhibited rectifying characteristics with a rectification ratio of 131 at ±1 V. At low voltages (V<0.55 V), the dark forward current density is controlled by the multi-step tunneling mechanism. While at a relatively high voltage (V>0.55 V), a space charge-limited-conduction mechanism is observed with trap concentration of 2.3×10²¹ cm⁻³. The C–V measurements showed that the junction is of abrupt nature with built-in voltage of 0.62 V which decreases with temperature by a gradient of 2.83×10⁻³ V/K. The cell also exhibited strong photovoltaic characteristics with an open-circuit voltage of 425 mV, a short-circuit current density of 17.23 mA cm⁻² and a power conversion efficiency of 6.44%. These parameters have been estimated at room temperature and under light illumination provided by a halogen lamp with an input power density of 50 mW cm⁻².     

Solubility,diffusion and electrical activity of Na in bulk Ge crystals

By studying the drift of Na⁺ ions in the firstly grown Na-doped bulk Ge crystals as well as by analyzing optical and some other characteristics of this material, the following conclusions are made, many of which are different from the commonly accepted statements: (1) Ge can be uniformly doped with Na during the bulk Ge crystals growth from the melt; (2) maximum solubility at room temperature and distribution coefficient of Na in Ge are (0.3–1)×10¹⁵ cm⁻³ and (0.7–2.3)×10⁻⁷, respectively; (3) Na is a donor impurity in bulk Ge, and Na atoms introduced during the crystal growth are predominantly electrically active; (4) the evaluated values of diffusion parameters of Na in Ge are as follows: the diffusion coefficient D=3.6×10⁻⁷ cm²/s, pre-exponential factor D₀=0.13 cm²/s, the activation energy for diffusion Q=0.33 eV; (5) Na is an interstitial impurity in Ge and rather rapidly drifts in an electric field, most likely, via interstitial sites; (6) the resistance distribution along the crystal length may be changed by DC electric field application and remain stable at the long-term crystal storage. The stability in the Ge:Na properties opens the possibility for using Ge:Na crystals not only for creating passive optical elements of infrared imaging technique, as we are doing now, but also for the electrical appliances, in particular for the substitution of the thermally unstable Li for Na in germanium detectors of γ-radiation.     

Characterization of MIS structures and thin film transistors using RF-sputtered HfO2/HIZO layers

MIS structures using HfO₂ and HIZO layers, both deposited by room temperature RF magnetron sputtering are fabricated for TFTs application and characterized using capacitance-voltage. The relative dielectric constant obtained at 1 kHz was 11, the charge carrier concentration of the HIZO was in the range of (2–3) × 10¹⁸ cm^− 3 and the interface trap density at flat band was smaller than 2 × 10¹² cm^− 2. The critical electric field of the HfO₂ layer was higher than 5 × 10⁵ V/cm, with a current density in the operating voltage range below 4 × 10^− 8 A/cm². The hysteresis and bias stress behavior of RF-sputtered HfO₂/HIZO MIS structures is presented. Fabricated HfO₂/HIZO TFTs worked in the operation voltage range below 8 V.     

Charge trapping in ultrathin Gd2O3 high-k dielectric

Charge trapping in ultrathin high-k Gd₂O₃ dielectric leading to appearance of hysteresis in C-V curves is studied by capacitance-voltage and current-voltage techniques. It was shown that the large leakage current at a negative gate voltage causes the generation of the positive charge in the dielectric layer, resulting in the respective shift of the C-V curve. The capture cross-section of the hole traps is around 2 × 10⁻²⁰ cm². The distribution of the interface states was measured by conductance technique showing the concentration up to 7.5 × 10¹² eV⁻¹ cm⁻² near the valence band edge.     

Investigation on the mechanism of charge generation in organic heterojunctions: Analysis of I–V and C–V characteristics

The charge generation mechanism of organic heterojunction (OHJ) consisted of 1,4,5,8,9,11-hexaazatriphenylene-hexacarbonitrile (HAT-CN) and different hole transporting materials (HTMs) are studied systematically by current-voltage (I–V) and capacitance-voltage measurements. The analysis of I–V characteristics of the devices based on OHJs at forward and reverse voltages by comparing the thickness of HTM layers finds that a forward and reverse symmetrical I–V curve is observed at thin HTM layers and the forward current becomes larger than the reverse current with the increase of HTM thickness, fully illustrating the effectiveness of OHJ charge generation. Moreover, the I–V characteristics at different temperatures indicate that the efficient charge generation is originated from electron tunneling rather than diffusion. And the C–V and capacitance-frequency (C–F)characteristics further illustrate the highly efficient charge generation ability of OHJs so that the charge density is as high as 4.5 × 10¹⁷ cm⁻³, guaranteeing the high conductivity of OHJs, which is very beneficial to developing highly efficient OLEDs using OHJs as charge injector and generator.     

Bipolar transport materials for electroluminescence applications

Benzofuranyl benzene incorporating naphthyl (phenothiazinyl or dimesitylboryl) entities via meta-conjugation have been synthesized. These compounds exhibit bipolar transport characteristic with mobilities in the range of 10⁻⁵ to 10⁻⁴ cm²/V s at an electric field of 4 × 10⁵ V/cm. The compounds with two naphthyl or dimesitylboryl substituents emit in the violet region with good solution quantum yields. The OLEDs fabricated from the benzofuranyl/dimethylboryl, benzofuranyl/naphthyl and benzofuranyl/dimethylboryl/phenathiazine derivatives have maximum external efficiencies of 1.01%, 1.41% and 3.14%, respectively.     

Effect of CdSe nanoparticles incorporation on the performance of P3OT organic photovoltaic cells

Photoluminescence and photovoltaic properties of P3OT:%CdSe nanocomposite films are investigated as a function of the mass concentration (wt%) of the CdSe nanoparticles (NPs) incorporated in the films. The incorporation of CdSe NPs produces a quenching of the photoluminescence and improves the performance of the nanocomposite solar cells. These effects are explained in terms of exciton dissociation and charge separation occurring at P3OT/CdSe interfaces within the Förster formalism, involving non-radiative energy transfer from the donor (P3OT) to the acceptor (CdSe NPs). An exciton quenching rate constant of 1.4×10⁻¹⁰ cm³ s⁻¹ is determined using the Stern–Volmer equation. In addition, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images reveal that surface morphology is changed by CdSe NPs incorporation, in agreement with FTIR spectra. The current density–voltage (J–V) characteristics of ITO/P3OT:%CdSe/Al photovoltaic cells performed for different CdSe concentrations are also reported and indicate a significant improvement of the photovoltaic parameters cells, particularly, the conversion efficiency becomes 20 times greater than that of the cell based on pure polymer.     

Deep Diffusion of Phosphorus in Silicon using Microsecond-pulsed Laser Doping

Deep diffusion of phosphorus atoms in monocrystalline silicon using laser doping process has been studied in this work. A pulse modulated CW fiber laser of wavelength 1070 nm with microsecond pulses has been used to diffuse phosphorus from pre-deposited spin-on-dopant film. The surface and cross-sectional morphology has been studied using SEM and AFM. The concentration-depth profiling was done using PP-TOFMS. Deep junctions of more than 10 µm have been obtained under various laser doping conditions while a maximum junction depth of 51.3 µm has been obtained through optimization. Diffusion depth enhancement is made possible by increasing the pulse length and reducing laser scan speed. Laser doping led to formation of n⁺ region with surface concentration varying in the range of 3×10²⁰–5×10²⁰ cm⁻³ for varying scan speed. Cross-sectional TEM and diffraction studies on laser irradiated samples show presence of only monocrystalline silicon phase after laser induced melting and solidification.     

Effects of thermal annealing on the photophysical properties of bisfluorene-cored dendrimer films

Annealing is widely used in the processing of organic semiconductors, and can modify their film morphology and photophysical properties. A study of the effect of annealing on films made from a blue emitting bisfluorene-cored dendrimer is reported. Annealing causes a 15 nm blue-shift in the photoluminescence (PL) spectrum and an 11 nm blue-shift in the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) spectrum. It causes the PL efficiency to decrease only slightly from 0.92 to 0.83. The radiative decay rate of 1.3 × 10⁹ s^?1, the ASE threshold of 1.5 × 10¹⁸ cm^?3 and the singlet–singlet exciton annihilation rate of 5.5 × 10^?10 cm³ s^?1 are unaffected by annealing. The results indicate a scope for colour adjustment of dendrimer light-emitting diodes and lasers without affecting their efficiencies. Investigation by spectroscopic ellipsometry shows that on annealing, the films become anisotropic, with larger values of the refractive index and extinction coefficient observed for light polarised in the plane of the film than the corresponding out-of-plane values in the absorption region of the bisfluorene core. This anisotropy indicates a preferential in-plane orientation of bisfluorene cores upon annealing.