Efficiency enhancement of top emission organic light-emitting diodes with Ni/Au periodic anode

The triple-metal-layer periodic structures in the anode for top-emission organic light-emitting diodes (TEOLEDs) are reported in this paper. The anode consists of aluminum (Al) and nickel/gold (Ni/Au) periodic structures. The Al is used for high reflectivity and Ni/Au for high work function by enhancing the hole injection from the anode into the organic hole injection layer. The Ni and Au work functions were measured at 5.3 and 5.1 eV, respectively, which were higher than that of a single Al layer at 4.2eV. This two pair Ni/Au anode device exhibits high reflectivity and reveals the microcavity effect to increase luminescence efficiency. The optimum current efficiency with the two pair Ni/Au anode is increased to 7.99cd/A compared with the one pair Ni/Au anode (6.85 cd/A) and three pair Ni/Au anode (5.07 cd/A).