Defect-Induced Photoluminescence Enhancement and Corresponding Transport Degradation in Individual Suspended Carbon Nanotubes
Abstract
This paper is a contribution to the Physical Review Applied collection in memory of Mildred S. Dresselhaus.
The utilization of defects in carbon nanotubes to improve their photoluminescence efficiency has become a widespread study of the realization of efficient light-emitting devices. Here, we report a detailed comparison of the defects in nanotubes (quantified by Raman spectroscopy) and photoluminescence (PL) intensity of individual suspended carbon nanotubes (CNTs). We also evaluate the impact of these defects on the electron or hole transport in the nanotubes, which is crucial for the ultimate realization of optoelectronic devices. We find that brightly luminescent nanotubes exhibit a pronounced D-band in their Raman spectra, and vice versa, dimly luminescent nanotubes exhibit almost no D-band. Here, defects are advantageous for light emission by trapping excitons, which extend their lifetimes. We quantify this behavior by plotting the PL intensity as a function of the ID /IG -band Raman intensity ratio, which exhibits a Lorentzian distribution peaked at ID /IG=0.17 . For CNTs with a ID /IG ratio >0.25 , the PL intensity decreases, indicating that above some critical density, nonradiative recombination at defect sites dominates over the advantages of exciton trapping. In an attempt to fabricate optoelectronic devices based on these brightly luminescent CNTs, we transfer these suspended CNTs to platinum electrodes and find that the brightly photoluminescent nanotubes exhibit nearly infinite resistance due to these defects, while those without bright photoluminescence exhibit finite resistance. These findings indicate a potential limitation in the use of brightly luminescent CNTs for optoelectronic applications.- Publication:
-
Physical Review Applied
- Pub Date:
- May 2018
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevApplied.9.054022
- Bibcode:
- 2018PhRvP...9e4022W