Low temperature emission spectra of individual single-walled carbon nanotubes: multiplicity of subspecies within single-species nanotube ensembles

Low-temperature photoluminescence (PL) studies of individual semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes reveal ultranarrow peaks (down to 0.25 meV linewidths) that exhibit blinking and spectral wandering. Multiple peaks appear within bands previously assigned to nanotubes of certain chiralities, indicating the existence of numerous subspecies within single-chirality specimens. The sharp PL features show two types of distinctly different shapes (symmetric versus asymmetric) and temperature dependences (weak versus strong), which we attribute to the presence of unintentionally doped nanotubes along with undoped species.