Morgan Advanced Materials (Germany)

In organic electronics, the interactions at interfaces between different organic and inorganic layers play a decisive role for device functionality and performance. Therefore, more detailed, quantitative studies of charge transfer (CT) at such interfaces are needed to improve the understanding of the underlying mechanisms. In this study we show that in-situ infrared spectroscopy can be used to investigate CT effects at organic/organic as well as inorganic/organic interfaces quantitatively. For different combinations of commonly used organic semiconductors such as 4,4´-bis(N-carbazolyl)-1,1´-biphenyl (CBP) or fluorinated zinc phthalocyanine (F4ZnPc) and inorganic contact materials such as molybdenum oxide (MoO3) or indium tin oxide (ITO) the CT at the interface was investigated using in-situ IR spectroscopy. The measurements were carried out under UHV conditions during film growth what enables a careful study of the influence of different parameters such as substrate temperature and layer thickness in a controlled way even on a nanometer scale. When the organic molecules are deposited onto the underlying layer charged and non-charged species form which can be identified and quantitatively analyzed in the IR spectra. It was also found that the deposition sequence can strongly influence the interface properties what might have strong implications on the layer stack design. For example, when MoO3 is deposited onto CBP, the CBP layer is strongly doped, due to diffusion of the deposited transition metal oxide clusters into the organic layer. Financial support by BMBF (project INTERPHASE) is gratefully acknowledged.