Hexagonal boron nitride as an ideal substrate for carbon nanotube photonics

Hexagonal boron nitride is widely used as a substrate for two-dimensional materials in both electronic and photonic devices. Here, we demonstrate that two-dimensional hexagonal boron nitride is also an ideal substrate for one-dimensional single-walled carbon nanotubes. Nanotubes directly attached to hexagonal boron nitride show bright photoluminescence with narrow linewidth at room temperature, comparable to air-suspended nanotubes. Using photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy, we unambiguously assign the chiralities of nanotubes on boron nitride by tracking individual tubes before and after contact with boron nitride. Although hexagonal boron nitride has a low dielectric constant and is attached to only one side of the nanotubes, we observe that optical transition energies are redshifted as much as ~50 meV from the air-suspended nanotubes. We also perform statistical measurements on more than 400 tubes, and the redshifts are found to be dependent on tube diameter. This work opens up new possibilities for all-solid-state carbon nanotube photonic devices by utilizing hexagonal boron nitride substrates.

N. Fang, K. Otsuka, A. Ishii, T. Taniguchi, K. Watanabe, K. Nagashio, Y. K. Kato · 2020