A combined photoemission and ab initio study of the electronic structure of (6,4)/(6,5) enriched single wall carbon nanotubes

Abstract

Due to the growing number of applications of small diameter single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) in opto-electronics and biological imaging, there is a strong need for a better understanding of their electronic properties. Because (6,5) tubes with a diameter of 0.75 nm are currently the strongest enriched in the CoMoCat synthesis process, they are one of the most studied carbon nanotubes. However, there is still a lack of knowledge on the electronic properties of these tubes. In this paper, we report on a detailed analysis of the electronic structure of (6,4)/(6,5) enriched nanotubes with a combined experimental and theoretical approach. From photoemission the detailed C1s and valence band response of these narrow diameter tubes is studied. The observed electronic structure is in sound agreement with state of the art ab initio calculations using density functional theory.