Fundamental and practical issues for phenylenevinylene-based polymer light-emitting diodes

An overview of photophysical measurements in phenylenevinylene polymers is presented and evaluated in light of the implications for organic electroluminescent materials design. Intrinsic limitations placed on device efficiency are discussed and we show that the polymer synthesis is critical to obtaining morphologies which exhibit reduced aggregation quenching of luminescence. We also document that oxidation of the polymer caused during the synthesis, or by subsequent excited state reactions, leads to luminescence quenching defects which can dramatically reduce fluorescence efficiency. We conclude with a brief review of other considerations in engineering efficient, long-lived polymer light-emitting diodes (LED's).