Magnetron-sputtered amorphous V2O5 hole injection layer for high performance quantum dot light-emitting diode

We developed radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtered amorphous vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) film to use in place of typical PEDOT:PSS or solution-processed metal oxide hole injection layer (HIL) in quantum dot light-emitting diodes (QLEDs). The electrical, optical, and chemical properties of the sputtered V2O5 HIL were correlated with the oxygen flow rate at room temperature. At optimized sputtering conditions, the V2O5 film showed a high optical transparency of 91.93% in the visible wavelength region and a work function of 4.73 eV, which is suitable for HIL in QLEDs. We also investigated the performance of QLEDs with sputtered V2O5 HIL as a function of oxygen flow rate. The QLEDs with optimized V2O5 HIL exhibited a maximum luminance of 198,542 cd/m(2), a turn-on voltage of 1.7 V, a max external quantum efficiency of about 8.3%, and a current efficiency of 20.3 cd/A, thereby making it comparable to typical PEDOT:PSS HIL-based QLEDs. The successful operation of QLEDs with sputtered V2O5 as HIL demonstrated that it could be used instead of other materials for next-generation large-area QLED displays. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

A novel V2O5 film was developed in this study to replace traditional PEDOT:PSS or solution-processed metal oxide HIL in QLEDs. By optimizing the sputtering conditions and oxygen flow rate, the V2O5 film achieved high optical transparency and a suitable work function, resulting in excellent performance of QLEDs.