Study of the effect of the doped poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) polymeric anode on the organic light-emitting diode performances

Abstract Bottom-emitting organic diode devices with polymeric anode were fabricated and their performances were compared to devices with different anodes. The highly transparent (transmittance ≈ 90%) and conductive (700 S/cm) anode was poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) processed from aqueous solution and modified by addition of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). The electro-optical characteristics of the DMSO-doped PEDOT:PSS based device and devices with architectures based on undoped PEDOT:PSS and/or indium tin oxide (ITO) were investigated and the effects of the different anodes were analyzed by means of electrical responses in static and dynamic regimes. The efficiency of the device with the proposed polymeric anode was comparable to that of ITO based device but reduced with respect to the device including PEDOT:PSS as hole-injection layer. These results were correlated to the film morphological properties and discussed in terms of interfacial state density modification.