Photoluminescence clamping with few excitons in a single-walled carbon nanotube

Single air-suspended carbon nanotubes (length 2 - 5 microns) exhibit high optical quantum efficiency (7 - 20%) for resonant pumping at low intensities. Under ultrafast excitation, the photoluminescence dramatically saturates for very low injected exciton numbers (2 to 6 excitons per pulse per SWCNT). This PL clamping is attributed to highly efficient exciton-exciton annihilation over micron length scales. Stochastic modeling of exciton dynamics and femtosecond excitation correlation spectroscopy allow determination of nanotube absorption (2 - 6%) and exciton lifetime (85 +- 20 ps).