Visible and near-infrared excited-state dynamics of single-walled carbon nanotubes

Abstract

Excited-state lifetimes of isolated single-walled semiconducting carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have been measured for the first time; these excited states, observed over the 400- to 1800-nm spectral domain, possess lifetimes that range from several ps to more than 100 ps. Sub-ps to ps decay components are assigned to relaxation in SWNT bundles. Interrogation of the samples with different SWNT mean diameters further confirms the dependence of the excited-state lifetime on roll-up vector. The ratio of fast and slow decaying component contributions in the first van Hove band can be viewed as a measure of the bundle content.