Laser heating control with polarized light in isolated multiwalled carbon nanotubes

We propose a novel method of laser heating control only through change in polarization of the incident light, keeping its power density constant. The idea combines an antenna effect found in isolated multiwalled carbon nanotubes and the possibility of their heating by light illumination. To observe this we used the Raman spectroscopy technique, where the heating manifests itself in a pronounced downshift of the Raman G and 2D lines as a function of the polarization angle. Our method can be useful in field electron emission devices or in selective nanotubes heating and destruction. It can also be extended to other one dimensional nano-objects, if only certain conditions are fulfilled.