Investigation of defects in polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes based organic light emitting diodes

We have investigated novel poly(p-phenylene vinylene) (PPV) derivative based organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). We have used poly(2,3-diphenyl-1,4-phenylenevinylene) (DP-PPV) as an emitter in which an inorganic core of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) have been incorporated. The hybrid structure obtained shows an improvement on the stability and an enhancement of electroluminescence properties. Charge-based deep level transient spectroscopy (Q-DLTS) has been used to study the defect states in indium-tin-oxide (ITO)/polyethylene dioxythiophene:polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS)/POSS-DP-PPV/CaAl light emitting devices. Analysis of the Q-DLTS spectra obtained in devices, reveal at least six trap levels. The mean activation energies of traps are distributed in the range 0.3–0.5 eV within the band gap of the hybrid polymer and capture cross sections are of the order of 1016–1020 cm2. The trap densities are in the range of 1016–1017 cm−3. Although the origin of these traps remains not clearly established, we suggest that the trap states with a large capture cross-section would likely to be originated from the inorganic part of hybrid material while those with lower capture cross-section would be related to its organic part.