Study of ethanolamine surface treatment on the metal-oxide electron transport layer in inverted InP quantum dot light-emitting diodes

The present work shows the effect of ethanolamine surface treatment on inverted InP quantum dot light-emitting diodes (QD-LEDs) with inorganic metal oxide layers. In the inverted structure of ITO/ZnO/InP QDs/CBP/MoO3/Al, a sol-gel derived ZnO film was used as an electron transport layer (ETL) and MoO3 was used as a hole injection layer (HIL). First, ethanolamine was treated as a surface modifier on top of the ZnO electron transport layer. The optical performance of the QD-LED device was improved by the ethanolamine surface treatment. Second, low temperature annealing (<200°C) was performed on the ZnO sol-gel electron transport layer, followed by an investigation of the effect of the ZnO annealing temperature. The efficiency of the inverted QD-LEDs was significantly enhanced (more than 3-fold) by optimization of the ZnO annealing temperature.