We develop a theory of the electronic structure and photophysics of interacting chains of $\pi$-conjugated polymers to understand the differences between solutions and films. While photoexcitation generates only the intrachain exciton in solutions, the optical exciton as well as weakly allowed charge-transfer excitons are generated in films. We extend existing theories of the lowest polaron pair and charge-transfer excitons to obtain descriptions of the excited states of these interchain species, and we show that a significant fraction of ultrafast photoinduced absorptions in films originates from the lowest charge-transfer exciton. Our proposed mechanism explains the simultaneous observation of polaronlike-induced absorption features peculiar to films in ultrafast spectroscopy and the absence of mobile charge carriers as deduced from other experiments. We also show that there is a 1:1 correspondence between the essential states that describe the photophysics of single chains and of interacting chains that constitute thin films.

• Received 7 September 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.78.235109