Ultrashort Carbon Nanotubes That Fluoresce Brightly in the Near-Infrared

Abstract

The intrinsic near-infrared photoluminescence observed in long single-walled carbon nanotubes is known to be quenched in ultrashort nanotubes due to their tiny size as compared to the exciton diffusion length in these materials (>100 nm). Here, we show that intense photoluminescence can be created in ultrashort nanotubes (∼40 nm length) upon incorporation of exciton-trapping sp defect sites. Using super-resolution photoluminescence imaging at <25 nm resolution, we directly show the preferential localization of excitons at the nanotube ends, which separate by less than 40 nm and behave as independent emitters. This unexpected observation opens the possibility to synthesize fluorescent ultrashort nanotubes-a goal that has been long thought impossible-for bioimaging applications, where bright near-infrared photoluminescence and small size are highly desirable, and for quantum information science, where high quality and well-controlled near-infrared single photon emitters are needed.

Low-Temperature Electroluminescence Excitation Mapping of Excitons and Trions in Short-Channel Monochiral Carbon Nanotube Devices

“…28 This is however unlikely to be the case here, since the electroluminescence data does not show the characteristic red-shifted emission of an sp 3 -functionalized nanotube. 28 From a technological point of view it is very promising that electroluminescence from carbon nanotubes is not bound to devices with large channel length. Also, the linewidth does not significantly broaden towards smaller gap size ( Fig.…”

Fluorescent Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes for Protein Detection

“…In addition, they do not photobleach or blink [16] ( Figure 1c). The photostable nIR fluorescence, along with robust functionalization, allow for the prolonged detection of SWCNTs through biological samples such as tissues, blood, and cells, as they are relatively transparent in this spectral range [15,30,41,51,69,73,[79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86] (Figure 1d). Human blood, for instance, has a narrow optical transparency window from 900 to 1400 nm where light can penetrate to approximately 3-5 cm [87].…”

Semiconducting Single‐Walled Carbon Nanotubes or Very Rigid Conjugated Polymers: A Comparison

“…During their effective lifetime they can move about 100 nm along the nanotube. [169][170][171] With this method a substantial increase in emission efficiency can be achieved. This means that short nanotubes will exhibit much lower photoluminescence yields than longer nanotubes with a saturation at lengths above 1 µm in dispersion.…”