Blue fluorescent organic light emitting diodes with multilayered graphene anode

Abstract

As an innovative anode for organic light emitting devices (OLEDs), we have investigated graphene films. Graphene has importance due to its huge potential in flexible OLED applications. In this work, graphene films have been catalytically grown and transferred to the glass substrate for OLED fabrications. We have successfully fabricated 2 mm x 2 mm device area blue fluorescent OLEDs with graphene anodes which showed 2.1% of external quantum efficiency at 1000 cd/m(2). This is the highest value reported among fluorescent OLEDs using graphene anodes. Oxygen plasma treatment on graphene has been found to improve hole injections in low voltage regime, which has been interpreted as oxygen plasma induced work function modification. However, plasma treatment also increases the sheet resistance of graphene, limiting the maximum luminance. In summary, our works demonstrate the practical possibility of graphene as an anode material for OLEDs and suggest a processing route which can be applied to various graphene related devices. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.