Sputtered gold nanoparticles enhanced quantum dot light-emitting diodes

Surface plasmonic effects of metallic particles have been known to be an effective method to improve the performance light emitting didoes. In this work, we reported the sputtered Au nanoparticles enhanced electroluminescence in inverted quantum dot light emitting diodes (ITO/Au NPs/ZnMgO/QDs/TFB/PEDOT:PSS/Al). By combining the time-resolved photoluminescence, transient electroluminescence and ultraviolet photoelectron spectrometer measurements, the enhancement can be explained to the internal field enhanced exciton coupling to surface plasmons and the increased electron injection rate with Au nanoparticles incorporation. Phenomenological numerical calculations indicated that the electron mobility of the electron transport layer was increased from 1.39x10-5 to 1.91x10-5 cm2/V.s for Au NPs modified devices. As a result, the maximum device luminescence is enhanced by 1.41 folds from 14,600 to 20,720 cd/cm2 and maximum current efficiency is improved by 1.29 folds from 3.12 to 4.02 cd/A.