Anisotropic optical properties of mechanically aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes in polymer

Abstract

We have prepared aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes in polymer by mechanical stretching. The polarized absorption and Raman spectra of the aligned samples have been investigated. The optical transitions in nanotubes strongly depend on the angle θ between the polarization of the incident light and the nanotube axis: the absorbance measured at the peak energy shows a maximum at θ=0°, and they are suppressed at θ=90°. Raman spectra also show strong polarization dependence, which is mainly determined by the dependence of the oscillator strength of optical transitions in nanotubes.