Berlin 2012 – scientific programme

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HL: Fachverband Halbleiterphysik

HL 11: Carbon: Nanotubes, Diamond and Silicon Carbid

HL 11.9: Talk

Monday, March 26, 2012, 13:45–14:00, EW 203

Photoluminescence of pristine carbon nanotubes — •Matthias Hofmann, Jan Glückert, and Alexander Högele — Fakultät für Physik and CeNS, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, D-80539 München, Germany

Semiconducting carbon nanotubes are an ideal material for the study of optical phenomena in one-dimensional systems. Recent experiments have shown that nanotubes exhibit the quantum optical effect of strong photon anti-bunching [1]. However, photoluminescence studies also revealed that the intrinsic optical properties of the commonly used material are partly masked due to the surrounding environment and defects in the nanotube crystalline structure.

By means of chemical vapour deposition we fabricated samples with freely suspended pristine carbon nanotubes with diameters in the subnanometer range. In contrast to commercial material of same chirality the photoluminescence of our suspended nanotubes reveals suppressed spectral diffusion and emission linewidths below the resolution limit of our spectrometer (<100 µeV). Furthermore, photoluminescence lifetimes of several nanoseconds are no longer limited by rapid quenching - now exceeding previously reported decay times [2] by one order of magnitude in accordance with ab initio theory predictions [3].

[1] A. Högele et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 217401 (2008)

[2] A. Hagen et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 197401 (2005)

[3] C. D. Spataru et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 247402 (2005)