  We present photoluminescence studies as a function of temperature from a
series of conjugated polymers and a conjugated molecule with distinctly
different backbone conformations. The organic materials investigated here are:
planar methylated ladder type poly para-phenylene, semi-planar polyfluorene,
and non-planar para hexaphenyl. In the longer-chain polymers the
photoluminescence transition energies blue shift with increasing temperatures.
The conjugated molecules, on the other hand, red shift their transition
energies with increasing temperatures. Empirical models that explain the
temperature dependence of the band gap energies in inorganic semiconductors can
be extended to explain the temperature dependence of the transition energies in
conjugated molecules.
