Ultraviolet photoemission study of oligothiophenes: π-band evolution and geometries

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Abstract
Ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) has been applied to the investigation of the electronic structure of oligothiophenes with 4–8 thiophene rings. In a series of α-linked oligomers (αn with n being the number of rings), a systematic evolution of the π band is observed. Several peaks which correspond to the π band are observed in the region of 0.7–3 eV below the Fermi level (EF), and the bandwidth becomes broader with increasing n. The nonbonding π band is observed at 3.5 eV below EF and its energy is almost independent of the number of thiophene units. UPS spectra of α7 and α8 are fairly similar to the spectra of polythiophene, showing that these oligomers are good model compounds of the polymer. The ionization threshold energy of α7 and polythiophene was observed to be 5.3 eV. The effect of irregularity on the π-electron system was also studied by using oligomers which contain a β linkage or a vinylene group at the middle of the molecule. The UPS spectra showed that the β linkages significantly affect the electronic structure of polythiophene, while the vinylene group does not. In order to analyze the UPS spectra and to investigate the electronic structures of oligomers, the orbital energies and the geometries of these oligomers are calculated by the semiempirical MNDO-SCF-MO (modified neglect of diatomic overlap self-consistent-field molecular orbital) method. Theoretically simulated spectra of these oligothiophenes derived from the obtained orbital energies by Gaussian broadening are compared with the observed ones. The agreement between the observed and calculated spectra is very good, particularly in the π region. It is shown from the optimized geometry that (1) αn ’s have planar structure and π electrons are delocalized, (2) the oligomer with β linkages has nonplanar structure leading to limited delocalization of π electrons, and (3) the oligomers with a vinylene group are almost planar and the disturbance by the vinylene group on the delocalization is small.