Computational Investigations of the Primary Excited States of Poly(para-phenylene vinylene)

The Pariser-Parr-Pople model of pi-conjugated electrons is solved by the density matrix renormalization group method for the light emitting polymer, poly(para-phenylene vinylene). The energies of the primary excited states are calculated. When solid state screening is incorporated into the model parameters there is excellent agreement between theory and experiment, enabling an identification of the origin of the key spectroscopic features.