Improvement of voltage and charge balance in inverted top-emitting organic electroluminescent diodes comprising doped transport layers by thermal annealing

We present investigations of top emitting organic light emitting devices (OLED) comprising n- and p-doped organic charge transport layers. It has been found previously that in comparison to noninverted p-i-n OLEDs, inverted n-i-p OLEDs show reduced device performances after fabrication. These differences can be eliminated by subsequent thermal annealing of the whole n-i-p OLED. After this process, the n-i-p OLED exhibits a superior low driving voltage of 2.9 V at 1000 cd/m² and shows an increase in external quantum efficiency from 11% to almost 15% which we ascribe to a modified charge balance within the intrinsic organic emission layer.