Van der Waals (vdW) interactions play a prominent role in the structure and function of organic/organic and organic/inorganic interfaces. Their accurate determination from first principles, however, is a notoriously difficult task. Recently, a surge of interest in modeling vdW interactions has led to promising theoretical developments. This article reviews the state-of-the-art of describing vdW interactions by density-functional theory with respect to accuracy and practicability. The performance of the different methods is demonstrated for simple systems, such as rare-gas dimers and small organic molecules. The nature of binding at organic/inorganic interfaces is then exemplified for the perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic-3,4,9,10-dianhydride (PTCDA) molecule at surfaces of coinage metals. This fundamental system is the best-characterized organic molecule/metal interface in experiment and theory. We emphasize the crucial importance of a balanced description of both geometry and electronic structure in order to understand and model the properties of such systems. Finally, the relevance of vdW interactions to the function of actual devices based on interfaces is discussed.

Many-body perturbation theory in the GW approximation is a useful method for describing electronic properties associated with charged excitations. A hierarchy of GW methods exists, starting from non-self-consistent G 0 W 0 , through partial self-consistency in the eigenvalues (evscGW) and in the Green's function (scGW 0 ), to fully self-consistent GW (scGW). Here, we assess the performance of these methods for benzene, pyridine, and the diazines. The quasiparticle spectra are compared to photoemission spectroscopy (PES) experiments with respect to all measured particle removal energies and the ordering of the frontier orbitals. We find that the accuracy of the calculated spectra does not match the expectations based on their level of selfconsistency. In particular, for certain starting points G 0 W 0 and scGW 0 provide spectra in better agreement with the PES than scGW.

The focus of the present article is on understanding the insight that X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements can provide when studying self-assembled monolayers. Comparing density functional theory calculations to experimental data on deliberately chosen model systems, we show that both the chemical environment and electrostatic effects arising from a superposition of molecular dipoles influence the measured core-level binding energies to a significant degree. The crucial role of the often overlooked electrostatic effects in polar self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) is unambiguously demonstrated by changing the dipole density through varying the SAM coverage. As a consequence of this effect, care has to be taken when extracting chemical information from the XP spectra of ordered organic adsorbate layers. Our results, furthermore, imply that XPS is a powerful tool for probing local variations in the electrostatic energy in nanoscopic systems, especially in SAMs.

Metal work-function modification with the help of organic acceptors is an efficient tool to significantly enhance the performance of modern state-of-the-art organic molecular electronic devices. Here, the prototypical organic acceptor 2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane, F4TCNQ, is characterized on Ag͑111͒, Au͑111͒, and Cu͑111͒ metal surfaces by means of density-functional theory calculations. Particular attention is paid to charge-transfer processes at the metal-organic interface; a subtle balance between charge forward and backward donations in combination with a strong adsorption-induced geometry change are found to be responsible for the observed increase in the system work function. A larger effect is obtained for the metals with larger initial work function. Interestingly, this results in similar charge-injection barriers from the substrate metal into an organic semiconductor deposited on top of the F4TCNQ layer. The impact of the F4TCNQ packing density of the electronic properties of the interface is also addressed. Comparing the calculated energy-level alignments and work-function modifications to experimental data from ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy yields good agreement between experiments and simulations.

The presence of dipolar layers determines the functionality of most technologically relevant interfaces. The present contribution reviews how periodic dipole assemblies modify the properties of such interfaces through so‐called collective electrostatic effects. They impact the ionization energies and electron affinities of thin films, change the work function of metallic and semiconducting substrates, and determine the alignment of electronic states at interfaces. Dipolar layers originate either from the assembly of polar molecules or they arise from interfacial charge rearrangements triggered by the deposition of an adsorbate layer. Such charge rearrangements result from the omnipresent Pauli pushback caused by exchange interaction, from covalent bonds, or from charge transfer following the deposition of particularly electron rich (donors) or electron poor molecules (acceptors). A peculiarity of charge‐transfer interfaces is that they enter the realm of Fermi‐level pinning, where the sample work function becomes independent of the substrate and is solely determined by the electronic properties of the adsorbate. Beyond changing work functions and injection barriers, the presence of polar layers also modifies various other physical observables, like core‐level binding energies or tunneling currents in monolayer junctions. All these aspects suggest that polar layers can also be exploited for electrostatically designing the electronic properties of materials.