Study of electrical fatigue by defect engineering in organic light-emitting diodes

Graphical abstract: - Highlights: • Electrical fatigue is investigated in PPV-based polymer light-emitting diodes. • Bromide defects remaining from Gilch synthesis limit PLED lifetime. • Electrical stress yields lower hole mobility and transition to dispersive transport. • Triplet excitons reduce lifetime and EL-emission-induced degradation observed. • Self-consistent drift-diffusion model for charge carrier injection and transport. - Abstract: In this work the current knowledge on the electrical degradation of polymer-based light-emitting diodes is reviewed focusing especially on derivatives of poly(p-phenylene-vinylene) (PPV). The electrical degradation will be referred to as electrical fatigue and is understood as mechanisms, phenomena and material properties that change during continuous operation of the device at constant current. The focus of this review lies especially on the effect of chemical synthesis on the transport properties of the organic semiconductor and the device lifetimes. In addition, the prominent transparent conductive oxide indium tin oxide as well as In₂O₃ will be reviewed and how their properties can be altered by the processing conditions. The experiments are accompanied by theoretical modeling shining light on how the change of injection barriers, charge carrier mobility or trap density influence the current–voltage characteristics of the diodes and on how and which defects form in transparent conductive oxides used as anode