Enhancement and Reduction of Nonradiative Decay Process in Organic Light-Emitting Diodes by Gold Nanoparticles

The influences of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) and the buffer layer on the performance of organic light-emitting diodes are investigated in this study. The GNPs are doped into poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) and the buffer layer is introduced between the hole-transport layer and emitting layer. The GNPs are found to have the surface plasmon resonance at a wavelength of 530 nm when the mean particle size of the GNPs is 10 nm. The current efficiency of the device, at a current density of 145 mA/cm2, with GNPs and a buffer layer of 6 nm is about 1.93 times higher than that of the device with prime PEDOT:PSS because the GNPs will generate the surface plasmon resonance effect in the device and the buffer layer can considerably decrease the quenching of the fluorescence.