Optical anisotropy in single-walled carbon nanotubes

Optical anistropy at optical communication wavelength was observed in films of vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). We report the control of both the polarization state and transmission of incoming light at 1550 nm by azimuthal and axial tilting of SWNT film about its aligned axis. The experiments reveal that the polarization state of light is susceptible to the azimuthal angle of the aligned direction of a SWNT having semiconductor characteristics and the intensity of the output beam after SWNT film shows cosine function dependence on the axial tilting angle.