Laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry: A predictive tool for the lifetime of organic light emitting devices

For improving the lifetime of organic light emitting devices (OLEDs), the analysis of the chemical degradation requires a deep understanding of the involved reaction pathways. We show that the dissociation reactions of phosphorescent emitters and the additional complexations with the used surrounding blocking layers are the dominant intrinsic degradation mechanisms in long living p-i-n type OLEDs. We use the laser desorption/ionization (LDI) time-of-flight mass spectrometry to correlate the laser-induced ion formation with the observed lifetime of the organic devices. The superlinear correlation between the LDI forced reactions and the lifetimes allows the prediction of the lifetime of an OLED with new materials.