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Updated: Jul 16, 2025

Resonance Raman Spectroscopy of Extreme Nanowires and Other 1D Systems
Published on: April 28, 2016
Observing Axial Chirality of Chiral Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes by Helicity-Dependent Raman Spectra
Shiyi Han1, Nguyen Tuan Hung2, Ying Xie1
1College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Beijing Science and Engineering Center for Nanocarbons, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
Helicity-dependent Raman spectra of an isolated, chiral, single-wall carbon nanotube (SWNT) are reported using circularly polarized light. A polar plot of polarized Raman intensity for the radial breathing mode (RBM), which is excited by left-handed or right-handed circularly polarized light, shows asymmetric angle dependence relative to the nanotube axis direction, which reflects the axial chirality of a SWNT. The asymmetry in the polar plot of the RBM can be analyzed by a complex Raman tensor. The complex phase of each component of the Raman tensor has a maximum at chiral angle θ = 15° of a SWNT which is between two achiral SWNTs, that is, zigzag (θ = 0°) and armchair (θ = 30°) SWNTs. Considering the interaction between the chiral SWNT and the circularly polarized light, we discuss the origin of the complex phases excited by the opposite helicity of the circularly polarized light.
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