Liquid crystalline networks for electroluminescent displays

This work presents the first low molar mass organic electroluminescent (EL) material to form a nematic glass and then emit plane-polarised light from the vitrified state on application of an electric field. Photocrosslinkable molecules are also discussed which form insoluble films on illumination with ultra-violet light. This approach combines the ease of deposition of small molecules with the robustness and stability of polymers, allowing simple fabrication of multi-layer EL devices and photo-patterning. A range of conjugated low molar-mass molecules are considered, containing the anthracene, perylene and fluorene cores, with the aims of producing a general recipe for efficient EL, based on ordered, stable nematics at room temperature. Many physical properties are compared and molecular mechanics modeling is used to represent molecular geometries. An acrylate and several diene photo-polymerisable derivatives of the fluorenes undergo photo-crosslinking. Infrared and photoluminescence spectroscopy is used to examine crosslinking in detail and to optimise exposure conditions. The diene shows no significant degradation for an optimal exposure, but requires a high fluence of 100 Jcm-2 to form an insoluble film. A doped photo-alignment layer is used for the first time to obtain polarised El with ratio 11:1 and 80 cdm-2 brightness from the crosslinked diene. The insoluble crosslinked network allows spin coating of an electron transporting over-layer, resulting in increased brightness. Complex impedance spectroscopy and time of flight measurements confirm good material properties with complete depletion of the crosslinkable diene molecule and non-dispersive conduction. Finally, a novel deposition technique, pulsed laser deposition (PLD), is presented, as an alternative to spin coating or vapour deposition. Minimal degradation is observed for optimised deposition conditions and a PLD film is successfully demonstrated in an EL device. (author)