Predicting polarizabilities and lifetimes of excitons on conjugated polymer chains

The properties of excitons on three different conjugated polymers in solution are investigated both experimentally and theoretically. The theoretical description of the excitons is obtained by solving the electron-hole Bethe–Salpeter equation (BSE) for the polymers, starting from a calculation within density-functional theory. The calculated radiative lifetimes and polarizabilities of the excitons are compared with experimental results from time-resolved fluorescence decay and flash-photolysis microwave conductivity measurements. The quantitative agreement demonstrates the predictive power of the theoretical approach.