Charge excitations in LiV₂O₅ and NaV₂O₅: similarities and differences

We calculate the optical conductivity of LiV$_{2}$O$_{5}$ and NaV$_{2}$O$_{5}$ using exact numerical diagonalization of a quarter-filled extended Hubbard model on a system of coupled ladders. In particular, electronic correlations are treated exactly, and a quantitative agreement between calculated and experimentally observed optical conductivity of these two vanadium oxides is presented. Furthermore, it is found that LiV$_{2}$O$_{5}$ differs from NaV$_{2}$O$_{5}$ not only in the charge ordering pattern but also in the nature of the inter-ladder coupling: In contrast to LiV$_{2}$O$_{5}$, in NaV$_{2}$O$_{5}$ neighboring ladders are coupled by a strong Coulomb repulsion, and not by inter-ladder hopping.