Enhancement of green quantum dot light-emitting diodes with Au NPs in the hole injection layer

In this work, we report the fabrication and characterisation of quantum dot light-emitting diodes (QLEDs) with Au nanoparticles (NPs) in a hole injection layer (HIL). When using ZnO NPs, the entire fabrication, with the exception of electrode deposition, was based on the solution process. At high Au NPs concentration (0.03 mg/ml), the QLEDs showed low leakage current, and both luminance and current efficiency improved by about 200%. By comparing two different locations of Au NPs within QLEDs, we found that the QLEDs with blended HIL showed three times higher current efficiency than those with separate HIL coatings. The coupling effect between the excitons and the local surface plasmon resonance leads to enhanced device performance.