Light-induced incandescence of single-walled carbon nanotubes

Abstract

We report the light-induced incandescence of single-walled carbon nanotubes excited by weak visible and infrared laser beams. The phenomenon does not occur on bulk graphite and amorphous carbon under the same conditions. The intensity of the incandescence is exponentially proportional to the incident laser power and the inverse of the gas pressure. After switching off the laser, the incandescence follows a simple exponential decay with a time constant of 160 μs which is independent of the initial intensity. The temperature derived from the blackbody radiation approximation agrees with the result from the Raman spectra. We attribute the incandescence of carbon nanotubes to the less thermal dissipation channels and low heat capacitance. © 2008 American Chemical Society.