Rayleigh scattering studies on inter-layer interactions in structure-defined individual double-wall carbon nanotubes

Although the inter-layer coupling in layered materials has attracted considerable interest due to its importance in determining physical properties of two-dimensional systems, studies on the inter-layer coupling in one-dimensional systems have so far been limited. Double-wall carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs) are one of the most fundamental and ideal model systems to study the inter-layer coupling in one-dimensional systems. In this work, Rayleigh scattering spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy are used to characterize the electronic transition between inner-and outer-nanotubes of the exactly same individual DWCNT. We find that the inter-layer coupling is strong, leading to downshifts in most of the optical transition energies (up to ∼0.2 eV) compared to isolated CNTs. We also find that the presence of metallic tubes lead to stronger shifts. The inter-layer screening of Coulomb interactions is one of the key factors in explaining the observed results.