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The effect of an interface dipole layer on the energy level alignment at organic-conductor interfaces is studied on a copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) monolayer/electric dipole layer/graphite system via ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (UPS) and metastable atom electron spectroscopy. An oriented monolayer of the OTi-phthalocyanine molecule, which has an electric dipole moment, is grown on graphite to yield a welldefined dipole layer with the vacuum side negatively charged. The CuPc monolayer is sequentially deposited on the dipole layer kept at 123 K. This weakly interacting system made of a very thin organic layer on top of a very thin dipole layer is in thermodynamic equilibrium. The UPS data from the system grown with and without the interface dipole layer show that the binding energy of the highest occupied state of the CuPc monolayer decreases when the dipole layer is inserted. The binding energy shift is in excellent agreement with the increase in vacuum level energy of the graphite substrate upon deposition of the dipole layer. The results show that the Fermi level of the CuPc shifts toward the valence states when the interface dipole layer is inserted.

Discotic liquid crystals emerge as very attractive materials for organic-based (opto)electronics as they allow efficient charge and energy transport along self-organized molecular columns. Here, angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARUPS) is used to investigate the electronic structure and supramolecular organization of the discotic molecule, hexakis(hexylthio)diquinoxalino[2,3-a:2',3'-c]phenazine, deposited on graphite. The ARUPS data reveal significant changes in the electronic properties when going from disordered to columnar phases, the main feature being a decrease in ionization potential by 1.8 eV following the appearance of new electronic states at low binding energy. This evolution is rationalized by quantum-chemical calculations performed on model stacks containing from two to six molecules, which illustrate the formation of a quasi-band structure with Bloch-like orbitals delocalized over several molecules in the column. The ARUPS data also point to an energy dispersion of the upper pi-bands in the columns by some 1.1 eV, therefore highlighting the strongly delocalized nature of the pi-electrons along the discotic stacks.