Optical excitations in Sr₂CuO₃

We investigated excitation spectra of the one-dimensional chain compound Sr$_{2}$CuO$_{3}$. The small peak at 2.3 eV in the loss function was turned to correspond to the strong charge transfer transition at 1.8 eV in conductivity. It has the excitonic character expected in one dimensional extended Hubbard model of the transition from the lower Hubberd band to the Zhang-Rice singlet state. The strongest peak at 2.7 eV in the loss function is attributed to the continuum excitation of the excitonic charge transfer transition. The spectral weight sum rule is satisfied within these transitions.