Direct identification of interfacial degradation in blue OLEDs using nanoscale chemical depth profiling

Gustavo F. Trindade, Soohwan Sul, Joonghyuk Kim, Rasmus Havelund, Anya Eyres, Sungjun Park, Youngsik Shin, Hye Jin Bae, Young Mo Sung, Lidija Matjacic, Yongsik Jung, Jungyeon Won, Woo Sung Jeon, Hyeonho Choi, Hyo Sug Lee, Jae-Cheol Lee, Jung-Hwa Kim () and Ian S. Gilmore ()
Additional contact information
Gustavo F. Trindade: National Physical Laboratory, NiCE-MSI
Soohwan Sul: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Joonghyuk Kim: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Rasmus Havelund: National Physical Laboratory, NiCE-MSI
Anya Eyres: National Physical Laboratory, NiCE-MSI
Sungjun Park: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Youngsik Shin: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Hye Jin Bae: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Young Mo Sung: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Lidija Matjacic: National Physical Laboratory, NiCE-MSI
Yongsik Jung: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Jungyeon Won: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Woo Sung Jeon: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Hyeonho Choi: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Hyo Sug Lee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Jae-Cheol Lee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Jung-Hwa Kim: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Ian S. Gilmore: National Physical Laboratory, NiCE-MSI

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Understanding the degradation mechanism of organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) is essential to improve device performance and stability. OLED failure, if not process-related, arises mostly from chemical instability. However, the challenges of sampling from nanoscale organic layers and interfaces with enough analytical information has hampered identification of degradation products and mechanisms. Here, we present a high-resolution diagnostic method of OLED degradation using an Orbitrap mass spectrometer equipped with a gas cluster ion beam to gently desorb nanometre levels of materials, providing unambiguous molecular information with 7-nm depth resolution. We chemically depth profile and analyse blue phosphorescent and thermally-activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) OLED devices at different degradation levels. For OLED devices with short operational lifetimes, dominant chemical degradation mainly relate to oxygen loss of molecules that occur at the interface between emission and electron transport layers (EML/ETL) where exciton distribution is maximised, confirmed by emission zone measurements. We also show approximately one order of magnitude increase in lifetime of devices with slightly modified host materials, which present minimal EML/ETL interfacial degradation and show the method can provide insight for future material and device architecture development.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-43840-9

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