We present photocurrent measurements of poly(p-phenylene vinylene) (PP
V) and derivatives for photon energies up to 5.0 eV. We observe photoc
urrent peaks related to the first, second and third absorption peaks,
which we associate with the dissociation of a succession of increasing
ly energetic excitons. We have performed INDO/SCI calculations for the
five-ring PPV oligomer, which show different distributions of the ele
ctronic charge of the exciton wavefunction over the chain at different
excitation energies. We discuss the significance of these states for
the photoconduction in PPV and question the applicability of a band-ba
sed model.