Opto-electronics of non-fully conjugated molecules was demonstrated successfully in this research as light emitting diodes (LEDs). A series of benzoxazole poly[2,2-(m-2-hydroxyl phenylene)-4-4¡¦-hexafluoroisopro- pane-bibenzoxazoles] (6F-PBO-OH, Am) and benzimidazole poly[2,2¡¦- (2-hydroxy-o-phenylene)-5,5¡¦-bibenzimiazole] (OH-Pbi, B(1-m)) were copolymerized for coil-like non-fully conjugated poly-(Am-co-B(1-m)) for luminescence investigation. UV-Vis absorption of the non-fully conjugated copolymers showed superposition of individual absorption response from the two chemical components of the copolymer. However, the photoluminescence (PL) and the electroluminescence (EL) emissions had a red shift with increasing OH-Pbi content. It seemed to suggest that OH-Pbi was more charge delocalized than 6F-PBO-OH. In mono-layer LEDs, the diode threshold voltages were about at 2 ~ 3 V and the EL showed a green emission. Tunable emission was not observed in varying the m value of the copolymers. Composites of copolymer, poly(Am-co-B(1-m)) and multi-wall carbon nanotube (MWNT) were in-situ synthesized for mono-layer LED fabrication. Few MWNT aggregation was observed via the field-emission scanning electron microscopy. It was a success in dispersing MWNT in the copolymers. There was a red shift with MWNT addition in the PL and the EL emissions. The diode threshold voltages were about at 2 ~ 5 V and the EL emission still showed a green emission. According to this study, MWNT was inconsequential on the PL and the EL emissions of the copolymers up to 2 wt. %.

The focus of this study is mono-layer polymer light emitting diode (PLED). The emitting layer is poly-p-phenylenebenzobisoxazole (PBO). PBO is a fully conjugated heterocyclic aromatic rigid-rod polymer. Anode is indium-tin-oxide (ITO). Cathode is aluminum (Al). We used UV epoxy resin to package PLED devices, then measured current-voltage response, electroluminescence (EL) emission, and device lifetime. We demonstrate that the packaged mono-layer PBO LED reduced its demise from water and oxygen. Device lifetime increased from 1 hour to several hundred hours. At a larger bias voltage or current, emission intensity and device efficiency became higher. But decay rate increased leading to shortened device lifetime. Device temperature appeared linearly with current density. A red shift of the EL emission was observed. The £fmax. of emission spectra moved from 534 nm (initial) to 582 nm (after 100 hrs). After thermal annealing at 120¢J for ten hours, threshold voltage increased from 5 V to 12 V, current density decreased to several 10 mA/cm2, luminous intensity improved several ten times to 10-2 cd/m2, emission color changed from yellow-green to orange, luminous efficiency improved from 10-7 to 10-4 cd/A, but device lifetime declined to less than 20 hrs.

Luminescent emission of non-fully conjugated homopolymers was successfully demonstrated as light emitting diodes (LEDs) in this research. Coil-like heterocyclic aromatic poly[2,2-(2,5-dialkyloxyphenylene)-4-4¡¦-hexafluoroisopropanebibenzoxazo- les] (6F-PBO-CnOTpA, with n = 10, 15, and 20) was synthesized, and polymer composites of 6F-PBO-CnOTpA was in-situ synthesized with acidified multi-wall carbon nanotube (MWNT- COOH). The non-fully conjugated coil-like heterocyclic aromatic homopolymer was synthesized by reacting 2,2,bis-(3-amino-4-hydroxy[henyl]-hexafluoropropane with 2,5-dialkyloxyterephthalic acid (CnOTpA) for 6F-PBO-CnOTpA, with n = 10, 15, and 20. In addition, MWNT was acidified for connecting the carboxylic group (-COOH) to reduce its aspect ratio and entropy induced aggregation. MWNT-COOH was analyzed using elemental analysis (EA) and viscometry to validate the effects of acidification period. The EA result seemed to suggest that the oxygen content increased, and the carbon and the hydrogen contents decreased with acidification period. The inherent viscosity (£binh) decreased according to acidification period suggesting that the aspect ratio was indeed decreased. A hole transport layer of PEDOT¡GPSS was applied for multi-layer LEDs,. The LEDs all showed a threshold voltage about 4 V also for the composites of 6F-PBO-CnOTpA in-situ polymerized with MWNT-COOH. The 6F-PBO-CnOTpA LEDs with and without MWNT-COOH showed an electroluminescence emission range of 400 to 750 nm.

Poly-p-phenylenebenzobisoxazole (PBO) and carbon nanotube (CNT) contain fully conjugated rod like backbone entailing excellent mechanical properties, thermo -oxidative stability and solvent resistance. Rigid-rod PBO is commonly processed by dissolving in methanesulfonic acid or Lewis acid. A CNT of multi-wall carbon nanotube (MWNT) was dissolved in a Lewis acid solution of PBO for dispersion, and then spun for thin film. MWNT concentration in the films was from zero up to 5 wt. %. Compared to that of pure PBO film, all PBO/MWNT composite films retained same but enhanced UV-Vis absorption peaks, according to MWNT concentration, showing that PBO and MWNT did not have overlapping electron orbitals affecting their energy gaps. The composite films were excited at 325 nm using a He-Cd laser for photoluminescence (PL) emission. All PL spectra had maximum intensity at 540 nm indicative of yellow-green light emission. The composite films were fabricated as light emitting diodes using indium-tin-oxide/glass as substrate and anode, as well as vacuum evaporated Al as cathode for respectively hole and electron injectors. In these light emitting devices, MWNT doped PBO would decrease threshold voltage for about 2 V. Up to 0.1 wt. % of MWNT, the device emission current was increased two orders of magnitude than those of the devices without MWNT. Further increase of MWNT caused a successive decrease in electroluminescence emission intensity attributed to a quench effect from aggregations of MWNTs. UV epoxy resin was applied to package the mono-layer and bilayer PBO light emitting devices. The UV epoxy resin had some gas release during encapsulation. The devices were packaged with vacuum and without vacuum encapsulation. It was demonstrated that the device encapsulation reduced its demise from water and oxygen. The vacuum encapsulation could remove gaseous volatile of the device to inhibit oxygen and moisture to prolong device lifetime. The main degradation of light emitting device was the oxidization of cathode. The interactions between nitrogen of PBO and H2O caused the formation of hydrogen bonding at room temperature. Oxygen and moisture diffused into PBO polymer and were suspected to form mid-gap state for the polymer. The mid energy band disappeared upon heat treatment before encapsulation. A device under a higher bias voltage was found to have a shorter lifetime, but a larger EL emission intensity. The EL emission intensity was not a constant under a constant current bias. The vacuum encapsulated device had two or twenty times lifetime than, respectively, the device encapsulation without vacuum evacuation or in ambient conditions. The sandwich structure of ITO/PBO/Al had no observable photovoltaic effect due to insufficient exciton separation into electrons and holes. Poly(2,3-dihydro thieno-1,4-dioxin):polystyrenesulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), a hole transferring medium, was spun into a thin-film between PBO and indium-tin-oxide to facilitate photovoltaic (PV) effect by forming a donor-acceptor interlayer to separate and to transport photoinduced charges. Optimum PBO thickness for the PV heterojunctions was about 71 nm at which the hole transferring PEDOT:PSS generated the maximum short circuit current (Isc) at a thickness of 115 nm. By using a layer of lithium fluoride (LiF) as an electron transferring layer adhering to Al cathode, the most open circuit voltage (Voc) and the maximum short circuit current (Isc) were achieved with a LiF thickness of 1-2 nm due to possible electric dipole effect leading to an increase of Voc from 0.7 V to 0.92 V and of Isc from about 0.1

Molecular light emitting diode, including organic light emitting diode (OLED) and polymer light emitting diode (PLED), is commonly consist of one or several molecular layer(s) sandwiched between an anode and a cathode. When electrons and holes are injected respectively from cathode and anode into the molecular layer by a bias voltage, these two types of carriers migrate towards each other and a fraction of them recombine to form light emission. The focus of this study is electrode modifications of molecular light emitting diode. The electrode modifications include using a low work function cathode material, a high work function anode material or inserting a very thin electrode modifier between molecular layer and electrode for enhancing the electron or the hole injection efficiency leading to higher electroluminescence emission and/or lower threshold voltage. Low work function metal, Mg, could effectively reduce the electron injection barrier between molecular layer and cathode leading to better emission brightness and threshold voltage. A monolayer rigid-rod poly-p-phenylenebenzobisthiazole (PBT) or poly-p-phenylenebenzobis- oxazole (PBO) PLED with Mg cathode demonstrated a low threshold voltage of 3 V. Besides, a very thin layer of LiF (or Al2O3) inserted between molecular layer and Al cathode was applied to enhance the electron injection efficiency leading to a stronger electroluminescence intensity and a low threshold voltage of 2.8 V. On anode modification, a thin PBO layer was inserted between molecular layer and the indium-tin-oxide (ITO) substrate for improving the electroluminescence emission brightness and the threshold voltage. The PBO modified anode could effectively enhance the electro- luminescence intensity and lower the threshold voltage to 1 V~ 3 V on several mono- or multi-layer molecular light emitting diodes. Besides, a novel ITO substrate cleaning method via acid treatment was applied for increasing the work function of ITO to effectively enhance the hole injection efficiency.

Zinc oxide (ZnO) has higher exiton binding energy (60 meV) and high band gap (~3.4 eV) that can provide efficient ultraviolet (UV) light at room temperature (RT). The easily etched in acids and alkalis that provides the fabrication of small-size ZnO-based devices. Electrodeposition is the growth method that can deposit high quality film and modify the characterizations of film by changing its deposition electrolyte concentration, temperature, and current density. Firstly, the ZnO is deposited on n-type Si substrate by electrodeposition by different deposited temperature, electrolyte concentration, and current density. The deposited films contain zinc nitrate, metal Zn, and ZnO while electrodeposited at various deposition parameters. For the deposited film contains only ZnO, no UV light is found measured by macroscopic photoluminescent analysis even annealed at different ambient and temperature. According to previous papers, an ideal UV light intensity can be obtained by thermal treated metal Zn or Zn ion implantation into oxide materials after annealing. Annealing the Zn-ZnO structure formed in 30oC by electrodeposition can observe intense UV light. This method improves the disadvantages of insufficient light intensity and no UV light observation from conventionally electrodeposited ZnO. The variation of UV light wavelength of ZnO oxidized from metal Zn is associated with the quantum-confinement effect that was discussed by previous papers. It is found that the size of ZnO is not small enough to realize the quantum-confinement effect, herein, we suggest that the variation of UV light wavelength is affected by the metal Zn resides in ZnO. Otherwise, the electrodeposition of ZnO is not easily performed on p-type substrate, an aluminum film on the back side of p-type Si can deposit ZnO by smaller potential, and different ZnO nanostructures are obtained by modifying the current density. Recently, different characteristics were found in nano-size noble metal crystals. In this thesis, the porous structure of Au-ZnO and Pt-ZnO were co-deposited by electrodeposition to enhance the photocatalytic activity. Si is the dominant material in semiconductor technology, but its indirect band gap property makes it not allowed in optoelectronics application. However, since 1990, the visible light is observed from porous Si fabricated by electrochemically etching of Si; though the light mechanism of porous Si is not clear, it can be divided into two parts, the quantum-confinement effect of Si nanocrystals and surface states on porous Si. Porous Si emits efficient visible light, but its light wavelength is readily influence by environment. We developed three methods, electrochemically etching the pre-treated Si substrate, adding chemical solution into electrolyte during etching process, and post-treatment of Si substrate after etching to prevent the emission of porous Si from being affected by environment.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Chemistry / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) have attracted significant attention because of their unique advantages for flat panel display applications. However, the relatively limited electroluminescence (EL) stability of blue emitting OLEDs continues to limit the commercialization of full color OLED displays. In most cases, the decrease in EL efficiency is also accompanied by a loss in blue color purity. Thus, the understanding of the degradation mechanisms of both the EL efficiency loss and color purity loss and the corresponding solutions to device degradation are required. In this thesis, electrical aging mechanism in anthracene-based OLEDs is investigated by using a number of techniques, including delayed EL measurements. The studies reveal that electrical aging is associated with an increasing concentration of an intermolecular species with a weak characteristic luminescence at around 535 nm. This species is capable of trapping charges, and thus plays a role as an electron-hole recombination center with prolonged electrical driving. Weak green luminescence from this species leads to an increased green/blue emission ratio, and causes the color purity loss in aged devices. The results also suggest that this species is also efficient in dissipating excitation energy non-radiatively, hence is capable of quenching singlet excitons in anthracene-based OLEDs, contributing to the observed efficiency loss with electrical aging. Moreover, the photo-stability of the organic/metal cathode interface in OLEDs is studied. Irradiating OLEDs by external illumination is found to result in a gradual increase in driving voltage and decrease in EL efficiency. This photo-induced degradation in device performance is found to be caused by changes at the organic/metal cathode interface that lead to a deterioration in electron injection. Evidence of photodegradation of the same interface, inherently, by device own EL, is also reported. The results uncover an important degradation mechanism in OLEDs and shed the light on a phenomenon that might limit the stability of other organic optoelectronic and photovoltaic devices.

ZnO material based hetero-junctions are a potential candidate for the design andrealization of intrinsic white light emitting devices (WLEDs) due to several advantages overthe nitride based material system. During the last few years the lack of a reliable andreproducible p-type doping in ZnO material with sufficiently high conductivity and carrierconcentration has initiated an alternative approach to grow n-ZnO nanorods (NRs) on other ptypeinorganic and organic substrates. This thesis deals with ZnO NRs-hetero-junctions basedintrinsic WLEDs grown on p-SiC, n-SiC and p-type polymers. The NRs were grown by thelow temperature aqueous chemical growth (ACG) and the high temperature vapor liquid solid(VLS) method. The structural, electrical and optical properties of these WLEDs wereinvestigated and analyzed by means of scanning electron microscope (SEM), current voltage(I-V), photoluminescence (PL), cathodoluminescence (CL), electroluminescence (EL) anddeep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS). Room temperature (RT) PL spectra of ZnOtypically exhibit one sharp UV peak and possibly one or two broad deep level emissions(DLE) due to deep level defects in the bandgap. For obtaining detailed information about thephysical origin, growth dependence of optically active defects and their spatial distribution,especially to study the re-absorption of the UV in hetero-junction WLEDs structure depthresolved CL spectroscopy, is performed. At room temperature the CL intensity of the DLEband is increased with the increase of the electron beam penetration depth due to the increaseof the defect concentration at the ZnO NRs/substrate interface. The intensity ratio of the DLEto the UV emission, which is very useful in exploring the origin of the deep level emissionand the distribution of the recombination centers, is monitored. It was found that the deepcenters are distributed exponentially along the ZnO NRs and that there are more deep defectsat the root of ZnO NRs compared to the upper part. The RT-EL spectra of WLEDs illustrateemission band covering the whole visible range from 420 nm and up to 800 nm. The whitelightcomponents are distinguished using a Gaussian function and the components were foundto be violet, blue, green, orange and red emission lines. The origin of these emission lines wasfurther identified. Color coordinates measurement of the WLEDs reveals that the emitted lighthas a white impression. The color rendering index (CRI) and the correlated color temperature(CCT) of the fabricated WLEDs were calculated to be 80-92 and 3300-4200 K, respectively.

Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit dem Aufbau von Nanokristall-LEDs. Dazu werden der Synthese, der Abscheidung und dem Aufbau und der Charakterisierung von Nanopartikeln und LEDs Platz eingeräumt. CdTe-Nanopartikel werden über eine wässrige Synthese, die auf elektrochemisch erzeugten Tellurwasserstoff beruhte, hergestellt. Der Vorteil besteht im geringen Aufwand und der guten Reproduzierbarkeit. Es konnte festgestellt werden, dass sich ein hoher Überschuss an Cadmiumionen in der Lösung positiv auf die Wachstumsgeschwindigkeit der Nanopartikel auswirkt. Statt des anfänglich benutzten Layer-by-Layer-Tauchverfahrens wurde ein Layer-by-Layer-Sprühverfahren entwickelt, das die schnelle Herstellung homogener Filme, bestehend aus alternierenden Schichten einer Matrix und der Nanopartikel, ermöglichte. Nachteilig ist der hohe Verbrauch an Nanopartikeln gegenüber dem Tauchverfahren. Dem Tauchverfahren lastet der Umstand an, die kolloidalen Lösungen durch häufiges Eintauchen des Substrats zu verunreinigen. Dies wird beim Sprühverfahren vermieden, da alles nicht adsorbierte Material nach unten abfließt. Es wurde gezeigt, dass sich Polyelektrolyte durch anorganische Gele ersetzen lassen, die über einen Sol-Gel-Prozess darstellbar sind, wobei es möglich wurde „All inorganic“-LEDs aufzubauen mit dem Vorteil der hohen Temperaturstabilität. Wobei sich die Reinheit der dargestellten Aluminiumoxid-Sole stark auf das Bestreben Aluminiumoxid-Kristalle zu bilden, auswirkt, die die Funktionsfähigkeit der LED behindern können. Die Verwendung einer isolierenden Matrix wie Poly-(diallyldimethylammoniumchlorid) oder Aluminiumoxid als Zwischenschicht zum Aufbau von mehrlagigen Nanopartikelschichten stellte sich als unproblematisch heraus, da sich Ladungsträger über einen „hopping“-Mechanismus zwischen den Halbleiternanopartikeln bewegen können. Größere Probleme bereitete die Verwendung von Nanopartikeln größerer Bandlücken wie ZnSe (2,7eV) als Elektrolumineszenz-Emitter. Es konnte nur eine weissbläuliche Emission beobachtet werden. Mit Nanopartikeln kleiner Bandlücke wie CdTe (1,6eV) wurde eine schmalbandige rote Emission festgestellt. Vorteilhaft erwies sich die Verwendung von Kern-Schale-Teilchen wie CdSe/CdS. Mit einer Matrix aus Aluminiumoxid-Gel konnte eine LED mit sehr niedriger Onset-Spannung (2,3V) hergestellt werden, die eine Lebensdauer von 33,5h besaß und noch bei einer Temperatur von 150°C emittierte. Ein weiterer Weg Nanopartikel zu stabilisieren, stellt der Einbau in makrokristalline Einkristalle durch Mischkristallbildung in Wasser oder organischen Lösungsmitteln dar. Die erhaltenen Kristalle zeichnen sich durch hohe photochemische und thermische Stabilität aus. Sie zeigen die Emissionseigenschaften der Nanopartikel, die nach Auflösung der Matrix wieder kolloidal in Lösung gehen. Allerdings liegen die Nanopartikel in der Kristallmatrix nicht regulär verteilt vor. Die Mischkristalle wurden erfolgreich als Luminophor in einer Gasentladungslampe und als Konversionsschicht einer kommerziellen LED getestet, die die Emission der Nanopartikel aufwies.