Photophysics of carbon nanotubes

This thesis reviews the recent advances made in optical studies of single-wall carbon nanotubes. Studying the electronic and vibrational properties of carbon nanotubes, we find that carbon nanotubes less than 1 nm in diameter exhibit dramatic changes in their electron and phonon dispersion relations due to the curvature of the nanotube sidewall and the enhanced electron correlation effects associated with one dimensionality. The optical transition energies in small-diameter carbon nanotubes show a strong dependence on their geometrical structure, as was first observed in the photoluminescence experiments. The frequencies of the Raman-active phonon modes also become very sensitive to the geometrical structure of small-diameter carbon nanotubes. In particular, certain phonon modes exhibit anomalous behavior that significantly affects resonance Raman spectra of small-diameter carbon nanotubes. We have developed the extended tight-binding and advanced force-constant models that properly take into account the curvature effects in the small-diameter limit. The many-body corrections are fitted to the photoluminescence and resonance Raman spectroscopy data.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Samsonidze, Georgii G

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Mildred S. Dresselhaus.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/38921

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/38921