Blocking of interfacial diffusion at Ag/Alq 3 by LiF

X. Z. Wang, Z. T. Xie, X. J. Wang, Y. C. Zhou, W. H. Zhang, X. M. Ding, X. Y. Hou*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy has been applied to interface studies of Ag/tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq 3 ) and Ag/LiF/Alq 3 . For Ag/Alq 3 , diffusion of Ag atoms into the Alq 3 layer occurs immediately after the adhesion of the metal onto the organic layer and the process lasts several hours. Insertion of a monolayer-thick LiF buffer at the interface can effectively block the diffusion process. This is quite different from what is observed from Al/LiF/Alq 3 , where Al penetrates into the LiF layer as deep as several nanometers. It is thus concluded that the LiF buffer may play different roles in Ag/LiF/Alq 3 and Al/LiF/Alq 3 and hence different mechanisms may dominate in the two cases for the enhanced carrier injection observed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3930-3932
Number of pages3
JournalApplied Surface Science
Volume253
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - 15 Feb 2007
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Alq
  • Interfacial diffusion
  • Metal/organic interface
  • Organic light-emitting device
  • X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Blocking of interfacial diffusion at Ag/Alq 3 by LiF'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this