Direct probing of charge carrier behavior in multilayered organic light-emitting diode devices by time-resolved electric-field-induced sum-frequency generation spectroscopy

Abstract

Time-resolved electric-field-induced sum-frequency generation (EFI-SFG) spectroscopy was employed to study the charge behavior of multilayer organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Through application of the square wave pulse bias to the OLEDs, compensation for the polarization charges in the electron transport layer and the generation of 4,4′-bis[N-(1-naphthyl-N-phenylamino)-biphenyl] (α-NPD) cations were observed. When the pulse voltage was turned off, the α-NPD cations immediately disappeared, confirming that charge recombination occurs at the interfaces. We therefore concluded that time-resolved EFI-SFG is useful for directly probing the carrier behavior in OLEDs in addition to identifying the origin of the charge carriers present in OLEDs.