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Electron and phonon renormalization near charged defects in carbon nanotubes

Nature Materials volume 7, pages 878–883 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Owing to their influence on electrons and phonons, defects can significantly alter electrical conductance, and optical, mechanical and thermal properties of a material. Thus, understanding and control of defects, including dopants in low-dimensional systems, hold great promise for engineered materials and nanoscale devices. Here, we characterize experimentally the effects of a single defect on electrons and phonons in single-wall carbon nanotubes. The effects demonstrated here are unusual in that they are not caused by defect-induced symmetry breaking. Electrons and phonons are strongly coupled in sp2 carbon systems, and a defect causes renormalization of electron and phonon energies. We find that near a negatively charged defect, the electron velocity is increased, which in turn influences lattice vibrations locally. Combining measurements on nanotube ensembles and on single nanotubes, we capture the relation between atomic response and the readily accessible macroscopic behaviour.

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Figure 1: Schematic model showing the renormalization of electron and phonon energies near a negatively charged defect, and its influence on the double-resonance G′ scattering process discussed in this work.
Figure 2: The G′ Raman band in different sp2 carbon materials measured at room temperature with Elaser=2.41 eV (514 nm).
Figure 3: Near-field Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy and imaging of a (9, 1) SWNT with Elaser=1.96 eV (633 nm).
Figure 4: Dependence of the G′ band on Elaser for the n-doped SWNT sample.
Figure 5: The use of the G′ feature to study doping in other SWNT samples.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge A. H. Castro-Neto, R. B. Capaz, J. Lefebvre and R. Dickman for helpful discussions. I.O.M., M.A.P. and A.J. acknowledge financial support from the Rede Nacional de Pesquisa em Nanotubos de Carbono, Rede National de SPM, Instituto de Nanotecnologia (MCT-CNPq) and CAPES/DAAD-Probral. A.H. and H.Q. acknowledge financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Me 1600/6-1/2). M.T, H.T and J.C.D acknowledge financial support from CONACYT-Mexico Grants No.45762, 45772, 41464-Inter American Collaboration, 42428-Inter American Collaboration and PUE-2004-CO2-9 Fondo Mixto de Puebla. A.M.R acknowledges K. McGuire and financial support from NSF DMR 0304019. N.A. and L.N. acknowledge financial support from the DOE (grant DEFG02-05ER46207) and NSF (grant CHE-0454704).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Neil Anderson

    Present address: Present address: Bausch & Lomb, 1400 N. Goodman St., Rochester, New York 14609, USA,

  2. Indhira O. Maciel and Neil Anderson: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, 30123-970, Brazil

    Indhira O. Maciel, Marcos A. Pimenta & Ado Jorio

  2. Institute of Optics and Department of Physics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA

    Neil Anderson & Lukas Novotny

  3. Department Chemie und Biochemie Physikalische Chemie and CeNS, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, München, 80539, Germany

    Achim Hartschuh & Huihong Qian

  4. Advanced Materials Department, IPICYT, San Luis Potosí, SLP, 78216, Mexico

    Mauricio Terrones, Humberto Terrones & Jessica Campos-Delgado

  5. Department of Physics and Astronomy and Center for Optical Materials Science and Engineering Technologies, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29621, USA

    Apparao M. Rao

  6. Divisão de Metrologia de Materiais, Instituto Nacional de Metrologia, Normalização e Qualidade Industrial (INMETRO), Duque de Caxias, RJ, 25250-020, Brazil

    Ado Jorio

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Contributions

Project planning: A.J.; sample preparation: I.O.M., N.A., M.T, H.T., J.C.D., A.M.R.; far-field measurements: I.O.M, M.A.P., A.J.; near-field measurements: N.A., A.H., H.Q., L.N., A.J.; all authors contributed to data analysis and scientific discussions.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Lukas Novotny or Ado Jorio.

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Maciel, I., Anderson, N., Pimenta, M. et al. Electron and phonon renormalization near charged defects in carbon nanotubes. Nature Mater 7, 878–883 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2296

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