Single molecule spectroscopic characteristics of two organic molecular rectifiers are reported. Composed of pyrene as the donor and perylenebisimide (PBI) as the acceptor, these groups are separated by bridges of one or four carbon atoms. Whereas the solution phase absorption and fluorescence spectra are similar, spectra are much more diverse and exhibit different degrees of photostability at the single molecule level. It was found that the addition of pyrene affects the stability of PBI's emission and analysis of dipole emission patterns reveal that pyrene functions as an orientational directing group for PBI in polymer thin films. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.