Raman spectroscopy of small-diameter nanotubes

Results based on Raman measurements of small-diameter nanotubes (NTs) are presented and discussed in this paper. The NTs with diameters from 1 nm down to 0.4 nm were produced either as the inner tubes in the double-wall carbon NTs (DWCNTs) or as tubes embedded in the channels of the zeolite crystals. While analysing the Raman spectra attention was paid to the radial breathing mode (RBM), the D line and the G band. For both NT systems the RBM frequency was found to follow the same functional diameter dependence as the tubes with larger diameters. However, in contrast to the latter, the diameters of the thin tubes obtained from density functional theory calculations must be taken into account to explain satisfactorily the observed line positions. The resonance behaviour of the RBM intensities was recorded for the tubes in zeolites. It allows us to ascribe a position of the RBM to a particular NT. This result also demonstrates the breakdown of a simple tight-binding approach to the electronic structure but agrees with predictions from ab initio calculations. The D line of the outer tubes in DWCNTs is dispersive, similar to the single-wall carbon NTs. However, the rate of dispersion is reduced for the inner tubes in DWCNTs. This is attributed to the fact that the inner and outer tubes are probed with the same laser excitation. The linear shift due to the increasing laser energy is compensated by the negative shift due to the NT diameter. The latter is smaller for the inner NTs which leads to a stronger compensation of their dispersive behaviour. This effect is even stronger for the NTs in zeolites. In the extreme case, the strong Raman lines are not dispersive at all. This unexpected behaviour was explained by the detailed ab initio calculation of the phonon structure. The G bands of the inner semiconducting tubes were observed as new features in the Raman spectra of DWCNTs. On the other hand, no lines of metallic inner tubes were found. G bands of semiconducting as well as metallic NTs were detected for the zeolite samples. In either case, Raman lines due to the recently proposed Peierls-like mechanism for the thin metallic tubes were not indentified. This mechanism must therefore cause a significant reduction in Raman intensity.

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