(Invited) Super-Localization of Excitons in Carbon Nanotubes at Cryogenic Temperatures

Abstract

At cryogenic temperature and at the single emitter level, the optical properties of single-wall carbon nanotubes depart drastically from that of a one-dimensional (1D) object. In fact, the (most usually unintentional) localization of the exciton in local potential wells leads to nearly 0D behaviors such as photon antibunching, spectral diffusion, inhomogeneous broadening... Here, we present an hyperspectral imaging of this exciton self-localization effect at the single nanotube level using a super-resolved optical microscopy approach. We report on the statistical distribution of trap depths, size and density. Together with a excitation resolved photoluminescence approach, we show that the excitonic states are deeply modified by the interface disorder inducing a remarkable discretization of the S11 absorption spectrum.