Multinary Cu─In─Zn─S‐based Quantum‐Dot Electroluminescence and Implications on Device Designs

Abstract Currently, the performance of quantum‐dot light‐emitting diodes (QLEDs) based on environmental‐friendly Cu─In─Zn─S quantum dots (QDs) still lags far behind that of Cd‐QDs‐based devices. Here it is demonstrated that the unique trap‐related recombination in Cu─In─Zn─S QDs is mainly responsible for the low device efficiency. The luminous efficiency of Cu─In─Zn─S‐based QLEDs is rather sensitive to the temperature and hole‐transporting layers (HTLs) due to the susceptible thermal‐related trappingdetrapping processes of holes in radiative Cu‐related traps. The holes in Cu‐related traps can be quenched by escaping to the valence band of the QDs or/and transferring to the adjacent HTLs. An HTL with low highest occupied molecular orbitals is desired to enhance the hole injection and hinder the aforementioned hole transfer. As a result, a high device efficiency of 6.0 cd A −1 is achieved at room temperature, which is attributed to suppressed HTL‐induced emission quenching and efficient valence‐band‐dominated hole injection from HTL to the QDs. The device efficiency is further increased to 13.2 cd A −1 at 150K by suppressing thermal‐induced quenching.