Vacuum UV Polarization Spectroscopy of p‑Terphenyl

p-Terphenyl is used as a component in a variety of optical devices. In this investigation, the electronic transitions of p-terphenyl are investigated by synchrotron radiation linear dichroism (SRLD) spectroscopy in the range 30000–58000 cm^–1 (330–170 nm) on molecular samples aligned in stretched polyethylene, thereby extending the region investigated by polarization spectroscopy into the vacuum UV. The resulting partial absorbance curves reveal that the vacuum UV band system with a maximum at 55000 cm^–1 (180 nm) is predominantly short axis-polarized. This result is of interest in the optical applications of p-terphenyl, for example as a wavelength shifter. The observed polarization spectra are compared with the results of quantum chemical model calculations. Convoluted versions of the transitions predicted with the semiempirical ZINDO method and with the long-range-corrected time-dependent density functional theory (TD–DFT) procedures TD–CAM-B3LYP, TD–LC-ωPBE, and TD−ωB97XD are in similar qualitative agreement with the observed partial absorbance curves throughout the investigated spectral regions, while TD–B3LYP fails to predict qualitatively the spectrum of p-terphenyl in the region above 40000 cm^–1 (250 nm).