Excitons in organics using time-dependent density functional theory: PPV, pentacene, and picene

We apply the bootstrap kernel within time-dependent density functional theory to study the one-dimensional chain of polymer polyphenylenevinylene and molecular crystals of picene and pentacene. The absorption spectra of poly(p-phenylenevinylene) has a bound excitonic peak that is well-reproduced. Pentacene and picene, electronically similar materials, have remarkably different excitonic physics, and this difference is also well captured. We show that the inclusion of local-field effects dramatically changes the spectra of both picene and pentacene but not for poly(p-phenylenevinylene).