Electroluminescent devices based on rare-earth complex TbY(p-MBA)6(phen)2

A new rare-earth complex TbY(p-MBA)6(phen)2 was synthesized and studied. Pure green emission was observed from the devices that were fabricated with the structure as follows: Device 1: ITO/PVK: TbY(p-MBA)6(phen)2/LiF/Al; Device 2: ITO/PVK: TbY(p-MBA)6(phen)2/AlQ/LiF/Al. PVK was used to improve the film-forming and hole-transporting properties of the TbY(p-MBA)6(phen)2. The characteristics of these devices were investigated and compared with Tb(p-MBA)3phen, which had been reported. The results show that TbY(p-MBA)6(phen)2 has much better performance than Tb(p-MBA)3phen. This improvement is attributed to the introduction of yttrium. The highest EL brightness of Device 1 is 37.5 cd/cm2 at a fixed bias of 19 V, and the highest EL brightness of Device 2 reaches 333.7 cd/cm2 at 23 V.