title: Optical detection of individual ultra-short carbon nanotubes enables their length characterization down to 10 nm.
abstract: Ultrashort single-walled carbon nanotubes, i.e. with length below ~30 nm, display length-dependent physical, chemical and biological properties that are attractive for the development of novel nanodevices and nanomaterials. Whether fundamental or applicative, such developments require that ultrashort nanotube lengths can be routinely and reliably characterized with high statistical data for high-quality sample production. However, no methods currently fulfill these requirements. Here, we demonstrate that photothermal microscopy achieves fast and reliable optical single nanotube analysis down to ~10 nm lengths. Compared to atomic force microscopy, this method provides ultrashort nanotubes length distribution with high statistics, and neither requires specific sample preparation nor tip-dependent image analysis.
authors.affiliation: Univ. Bordeaux, LP2N, F-33405 Talence, France.|Institut d'Optique &CNRS, LP2N, F-33405 Talence, France.
authors.forename: Zhenghong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Univ. Bordeaux, LP2N, F-33405 Talence, France.|Institut d'Optique &CNRS, LP2N, F-33405 Talence, France.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Oudjedi
authors.affiliation: CRPP, CNRS, Pessac, France.
authors.forename: Romain
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Faes
authors.affiliation: LOMA, CNRS &Univ. Bordeaux, F-33405 Talence, France.
authors.forename: Fabien
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Moroté
authors.affiliation: CRPP, CNRS, Pessac, France.
authors.forename: Christèle
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jaillet
authors.affiliation: CRPP, CNRS, Pessac, France.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Poulin
authors.affiliation: Univ. Bordeaux, LP2N, F-33405 Talence, France.|Institut d'Optique &CNRS, LP2N, F-33405 Talence, France.
authors.forename: Brahim
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lounis
authors.affiliation: Univ. Bordeaux, LP2N, F-33405 Talence, France.|Institut d'Optique &CNRS, LP2N, F-33405 Talence, France.
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cognet