Contributions of the electrostatic and the dispersion interaction to the solvent shift in a dye-polymer system, as investigated by hole-burning spectroscopy.

Persistent spectral holes burned in the system octaethylporphin in poly(styrene) exhibit a symmetrical broadening varying in a linear fashion upon application of a static electric field. This effect is due to permanent electric-dipole moments induced in the dye molecules by the electric "matrix field. " The average value of the dipole-moment difference p between the excited and the ground state of the guest molecules, which can be deduced from the broadening, shows a distinct increase from the blue to the red edge of the inhomogeneous absorption band, thus reflecting the varying dye-matrix interaction for centers with different solvent shift. A detailed analysis of this variation