Oxygen-crosslinked polysilane: the new class of Si-related material for electroluminescent devices

The preparation and optical properties of the novel silicon-related material named oxygen-crosslinked polysilane were investigated. The oxygen-crosslinked polysilane was prepared by the thermal annealing of the precursor polysilane bearing alkoxyl groups. The photoluminescence consisting of a broad visible band at about 440 nm and a relatively sharp band at about 360 nm was observed at room temperature. The relative intensities of the visible emission were changed during the crosslinking. The visible emission was greatly affected by the steric hindrance of the alkoxyl groups of the precursor. The visible electroluminescene (EL) was also observed uniformly from the EL cell consisting of the oxygen-crosslinked polysilane film sandwiched between A1 electrode and indium-tin-oxide (ITO) electrode. The current densities of the EL cell increased with an increase in the oxygen-crosslinking. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.