No Arabic abstract
We calculate the radiative lifetime and energy bandstructure of excitons in semiconducting carbon nanotubes, within a tight-binding approach. In the limit of rapid interband thermalization, the radiative decay rate is maximized at intermediate temperatures, decreasing at low temperature because the lowest-energy excitons are optically forbidden. The intrinsic phonons cannot scatter excitons between optically active and forbidden bands, so sample-dependent extrinsic effects that break the symmetries can play a central role. We calculate the diameter-dependent energy splittings between singlet and triplet excitons of different symmetries, and the resulting dependence of radiative lifetime on temperature and tube diameter.
Light emission from carbon nanotubes is expected to be dominated by excitonic recombination. Here we calculate the properties of excitons in nanotubes embedded in a dielectric, for a wide range of tube radii and dielectric environments. We find that simple scaling relationships give a good description of the binding energy, exciton size, and oscillator strength.
Using a new time-resolved cathodoluminescence system dedicated to the UV spectral range, we present a first estimate of the radiative lifetime of free excitons in hBN at room temperature. This is carried out from a single experiment giving both the absolute luminescence intensity under continuous excitation and the decay time of free excitons in the time domain. The radiative lifetime of indirect excitons in hBN is equal to 27 ns, which is much shorter than in other indirect bandgap semiconductors. This is explained by the close proximity of the electron and the hole in the exciton complex, and also by the small energy difference between indirect and direct excitons. The unusually high luminescence efficiency of hBN for an indirect bandgap is therefore semi-quantitatively understood.
The efficiencies of photonic devices are primarily governed by radiative quantum efficiency, which is a property given by the light emitting material. Quantitative characterization for carbon nanotubes, however, has been difficult despite being a prominent material for nanoscale photonics. Here we determine the radiative quantum efficiency of bright excitons in carbon nanotubes by modifying the exciton dynamics through cavity quantum electrodynamical effects. Silicon photonic crystal nanobeam cavities are used to induce the Purcell effect on individual carbon nanotubes. Spectral and temporal behavior of the cavity enhancement is characterized by photoluminescence microscopy, and the fraction of the radiative decay process is evaluated. We find that the radiative quantum efficiency is near unity for bright excitons in carbon nanotubes at room temperature.
We present direct experimental observation of exciton-phonon bound states in the photoluminescence excitation spectra of isolated single walled carbon nanotubes in aqueous suspension. The photoluminescence excitation spectra from several distinct single-walled carbon nanotubes show the presence of at least one sideband related to the tangential modes, lying {200 meV} above the main absorption/emission peak. Both the energy position and line shapes of the sidebands are in excellent agreement with recent calculations [PRL {bf 94},027402 (2005)] that predict the existence of exciton-phonon bound states, a sizable spectral weight transfer to these exciton-phonon complexes and that the amount of this transfer depends on the specific nanotube structure and diameter. The observation of these novel exciton-phonon complexes is a strong indication that the optical properties of carbon nanotubes have an excitonic nature and also of the central role played by phonons in describing the excitation and recombination mechanisms in carbon nanotubes.
The difficulty of describing excitons in semiconducting SWNTs analytically lies with the fact that excitons can neither be considered strictly 1D nor 2D objects. However, the situation changes in the case of metallic nanotubes where, by virtue of screening from gapless metallic subbands, the radius of the exciton becomes much larger than the radius of the nanotube $R_text{ex}gg R$. Taking advantage of this, we develop the theory of excitons in metallic nanotubes, determining that their binding energy is about $0.08v/R$, in agreement with the existing experimental data. Additionally, because of the presence of the gapless subbands, there are processes where bound excitons are scattered into unbound electron-hole pairs belonging to the gapless subbands. Such processes lead to a finite exciton lifetime and the broadening of its spectral function. We calculate the corresponding decay rate of the excitons.