Temperature dependence of the optical excitation lifetime and band gap in chirality assigned semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotubes

The temperature dependence of optical excitation lifetime 1/ and transition energies Eii were measured for bucky papers of single-wall carbon nanotubes SWCNTs and inner tubes in double-wall carbon nanotubes DWCNTs using resonant Raman scattering on the radial breathing mode. The temperature dependence of and Eii is the same for both types of samples and is independent of tube chirality. The data suggest that electron-phonon interaction is responsible for the temperature dependence of Eii and . The temperature independent contribution to is much larger in SWCNT than in DWCNT samples. This is explained by the different nanotube environment in the two types of samples. for the inner tubes of the DWCNTs is only 30 meV below 150 K, which is comparable to that found for individual SWCNTs and is considered as intrinsic to the tubes.