Orientation distributions of vacuum-deposited organic emitters revealed by single-molecule microscopy
Abstract
The orientation of luminescent molecules in organic light-emitting diodes strongly influences device performance. However, our understanding of the factors controlling emitter orientation is limited as current measurements only provide ensemble-averaged orientation values. Here, we use single-molecule imaging to measure the transition dipole orientation of individual emitter molecules in a state-of-the-art thermally evaporated host and thereby obtain complete orientation distributions of the hyperfluorescence-terminal emitter C545T. We achieve this by realizing ultra-low doping concentrations (10−6 wt%) of C545T and minimising background levels to reliably measure its photoluminescence. This approach yields the orientation distributions of >1000 individual emitter molecules in a system relevant to vacuum-processed devices. Analysis of solution- and vacuum-processed systems reveals that the orientation distributions strongly depend on the nanoscale environment of the emitter. This work opens the door to attaining unprecedented information on the factors that determine emitter orientation in current and future material systems for organic light-emitting devices.
Citation
Tenopala Carmona , F , Hertel , D , Hillebrandt , S , Mischok , A , Graf , A , Weitkamp , P , Meerholz , K & Gather , M C 2023 , ' Orientation distributions of vacuum-deposited organic emitters revealed by single-molecule microscopy ' , Nature Communications , vol. 14 , 6126 . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-41841-2
Publication
Nature Communications
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2041-1723Type
Journal article
Description
This work was supported by the Volkswagen Foundation (No. 93404) and the DFG-funded Research Training Group “Template-Designed Organic Electronics (TIDE)”, RTG2591. M.C.G. acknowledges support from the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung through the Humboldt-Professorship. A.M. acknowledges funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 101023743 (PolDev).Collections
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