We have observed that in an external d.c. electric field, in the differential fluorescence spectra of both symmetric and asymmetric polymethine dyes in a polymer film, the intensity of the emission in the long-wavelength region of the band increases while the intensity in the short-wavelength region decreases. In symmetric polymethines, these effects are opposite to those in the differential absorption spectra, while in asymmetric polymethines they are symbatic. The spectral effects were interpreted by a change in the probability of the vibronic transitions due to redistribution of electron density in the chromophore, in the ground state and the excited state of the dye, in an external electric field.Key words: polymethine dyes, electronic structure, absorption and fluorescence spectra, external electric field.Polymethine dyes (PDs) have recently been used as working media in unconventional fields for them, such as information technology, photovoltaics, and electroluminescence [1]. These media are used in an external electric field of strength 10 8 V/m, which is comparable with the intraatomic fields in conjugated organic molecules. The targeted search for dyes for such media is why there is a need to establish the characteristics of the effect of a external d.c. electric field on their spectral luminescence properties as a function of the dye structure. In [2, 3], such characteristics were obtained for the absorption spectra. In this paper, we have made the first attempt to study the effect of an external electric field on the fluorescence spectra of cationic polymethine dyes.As the dyes, we used the cationic symmetric PDs I-III and the asymmetric PD IV [4]. The latter is a hybrid of the corresponding symmetric PD I and II. We used polyvinylethylal (PVE) as the polymer matrix. This polymer is characterized by good film-forming and optical properties. It has high ionization potential and low electron affinity energy, and consequently it does not have either electronic or hole intrinsic conductivity.