Optical absorption of triplet molecular excitons in alkali cyanides

The optical absorption spectra of alkali cyanides in the UV region present a set of weak absorption bands which are identified as triplet a'³Σ⁺ molecular excitons. The nature of the molecular exciton transitions in the ionic-molecular crystals is discussed and the existence of an admixture between molecular exciton and charge transfer exciton states is suggested.