Mechanism of exciton dephasing in a single carbon nanotube studied by photoluminescence spectroscopy

We studied the temperature and chirality dependence of the photoluminescence (PL) linewidth of single carbon nanotubes to clarify the mechanism of exciton dephasing. The PL linewidth of a single carbon nanotube broadened linearly with increasing temperature, indicating that the linewidth and exciton dephasing are determined through exciton-phonon interactions. From the chirality dependence of the PL linewidth, we concluded that exciton dephasing is caused by both the longitudinal acoustic and twisting phonon modes.