Turn on voltage in the current density-voltage characteristics is one of the important factors to evaluate the performance
of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). In this paper, we report investigation of the origins of turn-on voltage, defined
at where log J (current density) has a sharp rise and starts to increase dramatically. In OLEDs with NPB as the hole
transport layer (HTL) and Alq3 as the electron transport layer (ETL), we find that the turn on voltage is always at 2V,
regardless the cathode structures, such as Ca, Al, LiF/Al, and Cs2CO3/Al, being used. The turn on voltage is also
independent on the thickness of organic layers. Beside NPB and Alq3, we also study the J-V characteristics on OLEDs
with various combinations of HTLs and ETLs. In all the devices investigated, the turn on voltage just equals to the
difference between the LUMO of ETL and the HOMO of HTL, taking into consideration of vacuum level shift at organic
interfaces measured from the ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (UPS). Combined with J-V characteristics of
OLEDs and UPS measurement, we propose that the turn on voltage of organic light emitting devices is determined by
the difference between LUMO of ETL and HOMO of HTL and is independent of the cathode and thickness of organic
layers. We also found that the charge transfers at the interface of ETL/HTL play an important role to the turn on voltage
of OLEDs.
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