RESEARCH ARTICLE

Improved transient electroluminescence technique based on time-correlated single-photon counting technology to evaluate organic mobility

  • Xianfeng Qiao , 1,2 ,
  • Shu Xiao 1 ,
  • Peisen Yuan 1 ,
  • Dezhi Yang 1 ,
  • Dongge Ma , 1
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  • 1. Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Luminescence from Molecular Aggregates, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China
  • 2. Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China

Received date: 10 Sep 2021

Accepted date: 10 Nov 2021

Published date: 15 Mar 2022

Copyright

2022 The Author(s)

Abstract

The transient electroluminescence (EL) technique is widely used to evaluate the carrier mobility in the field of organic light emitting diodes. The traditional analog detection strategy using oscilloscopes is generally limited since the background noise causes an underestimation of the mobility value. In this paper, we utilize time-correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC) to probe the transient EL for mobility calculation. The measurements on tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq3) show that the electron mobilities obtained using the TCSPC technique are slightly higher than those obtained from the analog method at all the investigated voltages. Moreover, the TCSPC mobilities demonstrate weaker dependence on the root of electrical field compared to the oscilloscope mobilities. These improvements are attributed to the unique principle of TCSPC, which quantifies the EL intensity by counting the number of single-photon pulses, improving its single-photon sensitivity and eliminating the negative impacts of electrical noise. These advantages make TCSPC a powerful technique in the characterization of time-resolved electroluminescence.

Cite this article

Xianfeng Qiao , Shu Xiao , Peisen Yuan , Dezhi Yang , Dongge Ma . Improved transient electroluminescence technique based on time-correlated single-photon counting technology to evaluate organic mobility[J]. Frontiers of Optoelectronics, 2022 , 15(1) : 11 . DOI: 10.1007/s12200-022-00021-8

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