Web Release Date: February 28,
Light-Induced Incandescence of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes
and
Department of Physics, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, Department of Physics, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, and Department of Chemistry, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Received: December 10, 2007
In Final Form: January 2, 2008
Abstract:
We report the light-induced incandescence of single-walled carbon nanotubes excited by weak visible and
infrared laser beams. The phenomenon does not occur on bulk graphite and amorphous carbon under the
same conditions. The intensity of the incandescence is exponentially proportional to the incident laser power
and the inverse of the gas pressure. After switching off the laser, the incandescence follows a simple exponential
decay with a time constant of 160 
s which is independent of the initial intensity. The temperature derived
from the blackbody radiation approximation agrees with the result from the Raman spectra. We attribute the
incandescence of carbon nanotubes to the less thermal dissipation channels and low heat capacitance.
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