  Spectroscopic ellipsometry was used to study the dielectric function of
LiCuVO$_{4}$, a compound comprised of chains of edge-sharing CuO$_4$
plaquettes, in the spectral range (0.75 - 6.5) eV at temperatures (7-300) K.
For photon polarization along the chains, the data reveal a weak but
well-resolved two-peak structure centered at 2.15 and 2.95 eV whose spectral
weight is strongly enhanced upon cooling near the magnetic ordering
temperature. We identify these features as an exciton doublet in the
Mott-Hubbard gap that emerges as a consequence of the Coulomb interaction
between electrons on nearest and next-nearest neighbor sites along the chains.
Our results and methodology can be used to address the role of the long-range
Coulomb repulsion for compounds with doped copper-oxide chains and planes.
