New Insight to Excitons in Conjugated Polymers
N. Kirova and S. Brazovskii
We review the solid state physics approach to electronic and optical properties of conducting polymers and bring together languages of solid state theory for polymers and the quantum chemistry of oligomers. We consider polymers as generic one-dimensional semiconductors with specific features of strongly correlated electronic systems. Our model combines the long range electron–hole Coulomb attraction with a specific effect of strong on-site electronic correlations, which results in effective on-site electron-hole repulsion. We explain, exploit and organize various experimental and numerical findings. E.g. we connect such different questions as shallow singlet and deep triplet excitons in phenylenes, Ag – Bu crossing in polyenes, common 1/N energy dependencies in oligomers.