Direct Observation of Cross-Polarized Excitons in Aligned Single-Chirality Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes

TL;DR

This study directly observes and characterizes cross-polarized excitons in aligned single-chirality (6,5) SWCNTs using polarization-dependent absorption spectroscopy, revealing new insights into their optical properties and environmental effects.

Contribution

First direct measurement of cross-polarized excitons in aligned SWCNTs via absorption spectroscopy, providing quantitative energy and oscillator strength data.

Findings

Observed a small absorption peak for perpendicular polarization.

Determined energy and oscillator strength of cross-polarized excitons.

Assessed environmental effects on Coulomb interactions in SWCNTs.

Abstract

Optical properties of single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) for light polarized parallel to the nanotube axis have been extensively studied, whereas their response to light polarized perpendicular to the nanotube axis has not been well explored. Here, by using a macroscopic film of highly aligned single-chirality (6,5) SWCNTs, we performed a systematic polarization-dependent optical absorption spectroscopy study. In addition to the commonly observed angular-momentum-conserving interband absorption of parallel-polarized light, which generates $E_{11}$ and $E_{22}$ excitons, we observed a small but unambiguous absorption peak whose intensity is maximum for perpendicular-polarized light. We attribute this feature to the lowest-energy cross-polarized interband absorption processes that change the angular momentum along the nanotube axis by $\pm 1$, generating $E_{12}$ and $E_{21}$ excitons. The energy difference between the $E_{12}$ and $E_{21}$ exciton peaks, expected from asymmetry between the conduction and valence bands, was smaller than the observed linewidth. Unlike previous observations of cross-polarized excitons in polarization-dependent photoluminescence and circular dichroism spectroscopy experiments, our direct observation using absorption spectroscopy allowed us to quantitatively analyze this resonance. Specifically, we determined the energy and oscillator strength of this resonance to be 1.54 and 0.05, respectively, compared with the values for the $E_{11}$ exciton peak. These values, in combination with comparison with theoretical calculations, in turn led to an assessment of the environmental effect on the strength of Coulomb interactions in this aligned single-chirality SWCNT film.