Although electroluminesence from organic materials has been known for a long time, research on light emitting diodes based upon conjugated polymers, with quantum efficiencies attractive for consideration in real devices, is quite new and currently growing into a topic commanding the attention of a wide variety of scientists and engineers, in both industry and academia, the world over. A great deal of the physics, and especially the chemistry, which governs the behavior of polymer-LEDs, occurs at the polymer surface, or the near surface region. The details are greatly determined by the metalic contact. Information obtained from detailed studies of the chemical and electronic structure of conjugated polymer surfaces and interfaces with metals, is becoming a basic ingredient in understanding device behaviour and optimizing device performance.

In this book, we attempt to bring together in one place the results of a relatively large number of basic studies of conjugated polymer surfaces, as well as the ‘early stages of metal–polymer interface formation’, in an attempt to produce a simple and coherent picture of some of the unique features of these surfaces and interfaces; features which are important in understanding and controling the performance of polymer-based LEDs. Instead of presenting a series of detailed chronological accounts of individual studies, we have tried to take a more global approach, at least in part, where the nature of the information allows, in order to make the book more comprehensible to readers from a range of different backgrounds.