Specific features of the electrooptical effect and light scattering of water dispersed system of carbon nanotubes

Results of an electrooptical study of a water solution of carbon nanotubes obtained using the catalytic method are presented. It is shown that nanotubes, which anisotropically absorb light, are oriented in an electric field and create a pronounced linear electric dichroism due to light absorption, rather than light scattering (as in the case of colloids with particles with sizes close to that of nanotubes). An analysis of the relaxation dependences of the electric dichroism shows that nanotubes deform, which are oriented in the electric field; in this case, the deformation sublinearly depends on the field amplitude and reaches a limiting value. The relaxation dependence of the field-induced dichroism agrees with the autocorrelation function of depolarized light scattered perpendicular to the incident light flux.