Novel transparent Yb-based cathodes for top-emitting organic light emitting devices with high performance

We have studied three kinds of transparent low-work-function Yb-based cathodes for the top-emitting organic light emitting devices (TEOLEDs) with a structure of ITO/NPB/Alq3/cathodes and compared them with each other. For the Yb/Au cathodes, a series of Yb layers with various thicknesses have been tested and it is found that the Yb layer with a thickness of 4 nm is the optimum one. The Yb:Au (19 nm) and Yb:Ag (19 nm) co-evaporation cathodes possess very high transmittance but relative poor electron injection; whilst the Yb (4 nm)/Au (15 nm) cathode possess a little lower transmittance but much improved electron injection and the TEOLED with this cathode has the highest power efficiency among the TEOLEDs with the three kinds of Ybbased cathodes mentioned above.