Spontaneous charge transfer at organic-organic homointerfaces to establish thermodynamic equilibrium

The energy level alignment of alpha,omega-dihexylsexithienyl (DH6T) mono- and multilayers on tetrafluorotetracyanoquinodimethane (F4-TCNQ) precovered Ag(111) and polycrystalline Au substrates was investigated with ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy. For certain F4-TCNQ precoverages molecular level pinning at DH6T monolayer-multilayer homointerfaces was observed. The pinning behavior shows that thermodynamic equilibrium can be established across hexyl chains via charge transfer, indicating the limited use of these short alkyl chains for insulation in the field of molecular electronics. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.