A robust ultrathin, transparent gold electrode tailored for hole injection into organic light-emitting diodes

A viable alternative to the problematic indium tin oxide (ITO) glass substrates invariably employed as the anode in organic light-emitting diodes is reported; namely ultrathin gold electrodes supported on glass. The key element to the successful fabrication of these electrodes is the pre-treatment of the glass substrate with the adhesion promoter 3-mercaptopropyl(methyl) dimethoxysilane prior to gold thermal deposition. The resulting films are exceptionally robust and exhibit high transparency over the visible spectrum combined with very low sheet resistance. Unlike ITO glass, these electrodes are chemically well defined and are fabricated at room temperature with no post-deposition annealing.