Length of Soliton Wave in the Excited State in the Cations of Symmetrical Pyridocyanines and Their Carbo and Hetero Analogs

Quantum-chemical calculations in the AM1 approximation were undertaken for the optimized geometry of the cations of polymethine dyes R⁺—(CH=CH) _n —CH=R], where R represents phenyl substituents or pyridinium, pyrylium, and thiopyrylium groups and n = 1-6, in the ground state and for the electron density distribution in the Frank – Condon excited state. It was found that excitation of the molecule by a light quantum leads to a decrease in the length of the charge wave (soliton). It was shown that the length of the soliton depends on the electron-donating character of the terminal groups R and on the length of the conjugated chain, while shortening of the soliton in the thiopyrylocyanines leads to disruption of its symmetry.