Improved performance of organic light-emitting diodes fabricated on Al-doped ZnO anodes incorporating a homogeneous Al-doped ZnO buffer layer grown by atomic layer deposition.

In this work, we investigated the use of a homogeneous Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) buffer layer to improve the performance of an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) device fabricated on an AZO anode. For this, 10-nm-thick AZO buffer layers with Al doping concentrations of 3.1, 4.1, and 5.1 at % were grown on 140-nm-thick AZO anode films containing 2.1 at % Al by atomic layer deposition. The electrical resistivity of the AZO anode with a homogeneous AZO buffer layer decreased with an increase in Al doping concentration up to 4.1 at %; however, the resistivity increased at higher doping concentrations in the AZO buffer layer. On the other hand, the work functions of the AZO anode with the AZO buffer layer containing various Al doping concentrations gradually increased with an increase in Al doping concentration from 3.1 to 5.1 at %. Therefore, the best film properties were obtained for an AZO anode with an AZO buffer layer containing 4.1 at % Al, and the work function value for this film was 4.64 eV. The highest luminance and current efficiency values were optimized to be 20290 cd/m(2) and 13.4 cd/A, respectively, with the OLED device composed of a DNTPD/TAPC/Bebq2:10% doped RP-411/Bphen/LiF/Al structure on an AZO anode with an AZO buffer layer containing 4.1 at % Al.