2. Shaping and characterizing organic materials

2.1 Solution deposition methods

The organic materials used as light emitters are essentially in the form of thin films, with thicknesses ranging from a few nanometers to a few micrometers. One of the fundamental advantages of organic materials over their inorganic cousins is their simplicity of processing, enabling relatively complex components to be produced at reasonable cost, on almost any substrate, and in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. These thin films can be produced using a variety of techniques, including spinning, thermal evaporation, inkjet or roll-to-roll printing, CVD, laser deposition or electrospray. However, current organic devices (OLEDs and lasers) essentially use the first two methods, which we will describe in greater detail here.