Photoluminescence Quantum Yield of Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes Corrected for the Photon Reabsorption Effect

Photoluminescence (PL) from single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) enables structural identification, but to derive the content rate of the specific chirality species it is necessary to know the quantum yield of each chirality. However, in the PL of SWCNTs, because the Stokes shift is small, the photon reabsorption effect is dominant and the apparent PL spectral shape and emission intensity are greatly modified depending on the concentration. This problem makes quantitative identification of SWCNTs by PL difficult. In this study, the concentration dependence of the PL of SWCNTs separated into a few chiralities was analyzed in detail, including the effect of reabsorption. It is clear that all changes in the PL spectrum occurring in the high concentration range can be explained simply by the reabsorption effect, and additional effects such as Coulomb interactions between SWCNTs can be negligible. Furthermore, a reliable quantum yield was derived from the emission intensity corrected for the reabsorption effect. The PL quantum yield varied with SWCNT chirality and exhibited a clear "family pattern". This is consistent with the theoretical report showing that the chirality-dependent PL quantum yield is dominated mainly by relaxation by optical phonons from E22 to E11.