Fabrication of highly efficient organic light-emitting diode based on dysprosium-incorporated tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline)aluminum

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) play a key role in modern display devices and systems. A highly desirable material for fabricating OLEDs is tris(8-hydroxyquinoline)aluminum (Alq₃). In this work, a highly efficient OLED based on dysprosium (Dy)-incorporated Alq₃ (Alq₃-Dy) was fabricated. The fabricated OLED had four layers, namely, those of indium tin oxide (ITO), N, N′-Di(1-naphthyl)-N, N′-diphenyl-(1,1′-biphenyl)-4,4′-diamine (NPB), Alq₃-Dy, and aluminum (Al). The ITO and Al layers were used as electrodes, while the NPB was selected as a hole transport layer. All the layers were deposited sequentially on a glass substrate. The surface morphologies of these layers clarified that the materials were deposited as nanosphere particles. The OLED performance showed significant improvement in terms of the operating voltage, current efficiency, and luminance of the fabricated Alq₃-Dy OLED compared with that of the pure Alq₃ OLED device. The luminance value was significantly enhanced from approximately 250 cd/m² for the pure Alq₃ OLED to approximately 5000 cd/m² for the Alq₃-Dy OLED. Moreover, the electroluminescence (EL) intensity of the Alq₃-Dy OLED was 20 times higher than that of the Alq₃ OLED. These findings may have a significant impact on the fabrication of the OLEDs and display devices.