Organic electronic films are commonly used for display technology and are being explored for photovoltaic, and other device applications. PHI’s XPS and TOF-SIMS instruments equipped with an argon gas cluster ion gun are ideally suited for thin film characterization of these organic films that would be chemically damaged if sputtered with monatomic ion sources. Shown below is a XPS sputter depth profile obtained using a PHI argon gas cluster ion gun for sputtering of a model OLED film that is constructed with a graded structure. The two organic materials are BPhen, an electron transport material and TCTA, a hole transport material. XPS profiles of these materials confirmed that the desired device structure was created and provided a basis to correlate device composition with performance.
XPS sputter depth profile of a model OLED device with a graded film structure showing the ability to characterize the multilayered organic structures with the use of an argon gas cluster ion beam.
Sample courtesy of N.C. Erickson and R.J. Holmes, University of Minnesota, College of Science and Engineering