Comparative study of metal or oxide capped indium-tin oxide anodes for organic light-emitting diodes

Indium-tin oxide capped with a variety of nanometer-thick metal or oxide buffer layers has been investigated as anodes in organic light-emitting diodes based on N,N'-diphenyl-N,N' bis(3-methyl-phenyl-1,1'-biphenyl-4,4'-diamine/tris-8-hydroxyquinoline aluminum. Although high work-function metal buffer layers led to enhancement in hole-injection efficiency, none of the metals investigated gave rise to improvement in current or power efficiency. On the other hand, diodes with some of the oxide buffer layers exhibited improvement not only in hole injection but also in power efficiency. In particular, when 1 nm thick praseodymium oxide was used as the cap layer, more than double the power efficiency was obtained. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.