Effects of mechanically polished and annealed indium-tin-oxide (ITO) substrates on tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline)aluminium (Alq 3 )-based light-emitting diodes were studied. It was found that the roughness and oxygen content at the ITO surface were reduced after mechanical polishing. Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) fabricated on polished ITO surfaces showed ten fold better electroluminescence and current injection than OLEDs fabricated on as-received ITO surfaces, due to the increase of the smooth contact area between the ITO surface and the organic layer. The ITO substrate annealed at 300°C did not show much enhancement of electroluminescence, even though it showed high current injection at low voltage. Therefore, mechanical polishing is an effective treatment for enhancing the performance of OLEDs.
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Park et al. (2002) studied this question.