Temperature induced modification of the mid-infrared response of single-walled carbon nanotubes

Abstract

The temperature dependences of the absorbance spectra of thin free-standing single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) films were studied in the infrared range (700-6200 cm-1) while heating the air from 300 to 575 K. The observed temperature variation in the infrared absorbance spectra has been explained by two different physical factors. The first one is the strong temperature dependence of the conductivity of p-type doped semiconducting SWCNTs. The second one is the temperature dependence of electron relaxation time of intraband electron transitions in metallic SWCNTs. The possibility of the separation of contributions from the interband and intraband transitions to the infrared spectra of SWCNT films has been demonstrated.