Correlation between bias-dependent ESR signals and magnetic field effects in organic light emitting diodes

Abstract

The bias dependent behaviors in magnetic field effects (MFEs) of the current and the electroluminescence (EL) intensity in organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) have been investigated from electrically-detected and EL-detected magnetic resonance (EDMR and ELDMR) techniques. An EDMR signal was not detected from the electron-only device, and the hole-only device gave only a much smaller EDMR signal than the OLED device. Both the EDMR and ELDMR signals observed from the OLED are concluded to primarily arise from the spin-dependent reaction of electron-hole (e-h) pairs. Both the normalized EDMR and ELDMR signal intensities decrease by increasing the operation bias of OLED, because the increased bias enhances the dissociation and recombination of e-h pairs beyond the increase in the pair-density by the bias. The bias-dependence curves of magneto-conductances and magneto-EL intensities are demonstrated to be very similar to those of the normalized EDMR and ELDMR, respectively. This similarity gives direct evidence that e-h pairs determine the MFEs of the present OLEDs at room temperature and that the MFEs are reduced by bias-dependent dissociation and recombination of e-h pairs. The bias-dependent EDMR and ELDMR experiments are thus effective as probing methods to examine the magnetic field properties via e-h pairs of OLEDs.