Femtosecond laser-assisted photobleaching of single-wall carbon nanotubes

Abstract

We present femtosecond laser induced photobleaching of individually isolated single-wall carbon nanotubes. Monodispersed single-wall carbon nanotubes fixed in aqueous gel were exposed under tightly focused femtosecond laser light. We measured photoluminescence spectra of single-wall carbon nanotubes before/after the laser irradiation. Because of unique excitonic band structures of single-wall carbon nanotubes, we clearly observed strong selectivity in the chirality and the orientation of carbon nanotubes depending on the wavelength and polarization of laser light. We also observed the difference from the case of continuous wave laser irradiation in the chirality selectivity and the efficiency of photobleaching.