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Updated: Aug 14, 2026

Resonance Raman Spectroscopy of Extreme Nanowires and Other 1D Systems
Published on: April 28, 2016
Exponential decay lifetimes of excitons in individual single-walled carbon nanotubes
Axel Hagen1, Mathias Steiner, Markus B Raschke
1Department of Physical Chemistry, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, 12489 Berlin, Germany.
Abstract:
The dynamics of excitons in individual semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes was studied using time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The PL decay from tubes of the same (n,m) type was found to be monoexponential, however, with lifetimes varying between less than 20 and 200 ps from tube to tube. Competition of nonradiative decay of excitons is facilitated by a thermally activated process, most likely a transition to a low-lying optically inactive trap state that is promoted by a low-frequency phonon mode.
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