Photoluminescence from an individual double-walled carbon nanotube

Dmitry I. Levshov, Romain Parret, Huy-Nam Tran, Thierry Michel, Thi Thanh Cao, Van Chuc Nguyen, Raul Arenal, Valentin N. Popov, Sergei B. Rochal, Jean-Louis Sauvajol, Ahmed-Azmi Zahab, and Matthieu Paillet

Phys. Rev. B 96, 195410 – Published 7 November 2017

Abstract

We report direct and unambiguous evidence of the existence of inner semiconducting tube (ISCT) photoluminescence (PL) from measurements performed on four individual freestanding index-identified double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWNTs). Based on thorough Rayleigh scattering, Raman scattering, and PL experiments, we are able to demonstrate that the ISCT PL is observed with a quantum yield estimated to be a few $10^{- 6}$ independent of the semiconducting or metallic nature of the outer tube. This result is mainly attributed to ultrafast exciton transfer from the inner to outer tube. Furthermore, by carrying out PL excitation experiments on the (14,1)@(15,12) DWNT, we show that the ISCT PL can be detected through the optical excitation of the outer tube, indicating that the exciton transfer can also occur in the opposite way.

Received 23 May 2017
Revised 28 July 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.195410

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Excitons Luminescence

Carbon-based materials Nanotubes

High-resolution transmission electron microscopy Photoluminescence Raman spectroscopy Rayleigh scattering

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Dmitry I. Levshov^1,2, Romain Parret¹, Huy-Nam Tran¹, Thierry Michel¹, Thi Thanh Cao³, Van Chuc Nguyen³, Raul Arenal^4,5, Valentin N. Popov⁶, Sergei B. Rochal², Jean-Louis Sauvajol¹, Ahmed-Azmi Zahab¹, and Matthieu Paillet^1,*

¹Laboratoire Charles Coulomb (UMR5221), CNRS-Université de Montpellier, F-34095 Montpellier, France
²Faculty of Physics, Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia
³Institute of Materials Science, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet, Hanoi, Vietnam
⁴Instituto de Nanociencia de Aragón, Campus Rìo Ebro, Edificio I+D. C/Mariano Esquillo, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain
⁵ARAID Foundation, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain
⁶Faculty of Physics, University of Sofia, 5 James Bourchier Boulevard, 1164 Sofia, Bulgaria

^*Corresponding author: matthieu.paillet@umontpellier.fr

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Issue

Vol. 96, Iss. 19 — 15 November 2017

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Images

Figure 1
The (8,4)@(18,2) DWNT. (a) ED pattern, experimental (left part) and calculated (right part). The inset shows an HRTEM image of this DWNT. (b) RBLM (left) and $G$ (right) mode ranges of the Raman spectrum excited at 2.21 eV. The inset in the left panel shows a close-up of the out-of-phase RBLM. (c) PL emission spectrum excited at 2.21 eV. The solid blue line shows the experimental data, and the solid black line shows the Lorentzian fit.
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Figure 2
The (7,6)@(16,6) and (10, 6)@(14, 13) DWNTs. (a) The (7,6)@(16,6) and (d) (10, 6)@(14, 13) Rayleigh spectra; optical transitions associated with inner (i) and outer (o) tubes are labeled on the graph as $S_{j j}^{i}$ and $S_{j j}^{o}$ respectively, where $j$ is the optical transition index. (b) The (7,6)@(16,6) and (e) (10, 6)@(14, 13) RBLM (inset) and $G$ -mode ranges of Raman spectra excited at (b) 1.78 and (e) 1.6 eV close to the $S_{22}^{i}$ optical resonances observed by Rayleigh. (c) The (7,6)@(16,6) and (f) (10, 6)@(14, 13) corresponding PL emission spectra excited at (c) 1.77 and (f) 1.57 eV corresponding to $S_{22}^{i}$ . Blue lines show experimental data; black lines show Lorentzian fits. The additional narrow component in the PL spectrum in (c), marked with an asterisk, is attributed to the $2 G + 2 D$ Raman peak.
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Figure 3
The (10, 6)@(14, 13) DWNT. (a) PLE map. Gray zones are artifacts mainly from the second order of the laser excitation line. (b) Top: PLE spectrum, integrated PL intensity as a function of laser excitation energy; black dots show experimental data, and the blue line shows the Lorentzian fit. Middle: Rayleigh spectrum; black dots show experimental data, and the red line shows the fit using an excitonic model [52]. Bottom: REPs of RBLMs, both in phase (blue open circles) and out of phase (black open diamonds), and corresponding fits using an excitonic model [52] (blue and black lines, respectively). The PLE profile fit gives a maximum of emission at an excitation energy of 1.573 eV, corresponding to $S_{22}^{i}$ . The fits of the Rayleigh spectrum and REPs give the energies of this transition at 1.599 and 1.585 eV, respectively.
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Figure 4
The (14,1)@(15,12) DWNT. (a) PL excitation map. Gray zones are artifacts mainly from the second order of the laser excitation line. (b) RBLM excitation map. (c) Top: PLE spectrum, integrated PL intensity as a function of laser excitation energy; black dots show the experimental data, and the blue line shows the Lorentzian fit. Middle: Rayleigh spectrum; black filled dots show the experimental data, and the red line shows the fit using an excitonic model [52]. Bottom: REPs of RBLMs, both in phase (blue open circles) and out of phase (black open diamonds), and corresponding fits using an excitonic model [52] (blue and black lines, respectively). The PLE spectrum fit gives the maximum of emission at excitation energies of 1.541 eV ( $S_{22}^{i}$ and $M_{11 +}^{o}$ ) and 1.42 eV ( $M_{11 -}^{o}$ ). The fits of the Rayleigh spectrum (REPs) give the energies of the transitions at 1.443 (1.434) and 1.552 (1.545) eV, respectively.
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Figure 5
Extinction, i.e., the relative change in the laser transmission signal $Δ T / T_{0}$ , measured by placing a photodiode underneath the sample and using it to record the transmitted laser power as a function of the 561+nm laser position while scanning it across the (8,4)@(18,2) DWNT (located at $x = 0$ ): data are shown by black open circles, and the corresponding fit with a Gaussian function is shown by the red line.
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