ABSTRACT

In this chapter four experiments are described. Two experiments can be performed in an applied science laboratory that is equiped for bachelor education. For two experiments specific equipment is necessary. 15.1 Organometallic Light-Emitting Diode An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) is a thin light-emitting device (LED) that consists of at least three layers on top of each other. Light is emitted by passing an electric current. The current in this case consists of hopping electrons. The light-emitting polymer layer is sandwiched between two electrodes. One of the electrodes is light transparent. This electrode is mostly made of indium tin oxide (ITO)

and is used as the anode. The other electrode is placed on top of the device and is used as the cathode. Aluminum is often used. The variant discussed here is an organometallic LED. The light-emmiting layer consists of ruthenium complex ions arranged in a polymer matrix. Müller et al. (2004) describe the synthesis and working principle in their article. The working mechanism is visualized in Fig. 15.1.