Existence and stability of transverse polarons and bipolarons in ccnducting polymers

Summary form only given. Polarons and bipolarons in conducting polymers are usually considered as bi@ing one-dimensional excitations. However, due to the presence of dopants which act as tunnelling bridges between neighbouring chains, new species have to be considered as well: the transverse polaron and bipolarons. The stability of those novel excitations is calculated within a Holstein´s model in which all the possLble interactions are taken into account including Coulomb correlations between carriers and interactions with the dopants. U/Eb .0 polarons 0 :3 transversE 0_ bipolaron 2 bi lar Stability diagram of a transverse bipolaron smeared over 3 chains (Eb is 0 4/3 U,I/Eb the binding energy of the polaron). dopant attraction