Light Control over Chirality Selective Functionalization of Substrate Supported Carbon Nanotubes

Diazonium reactions with carbon nanotubes form optical $sp^3$ defects that can be used in optical and electrical circuits. We investigate a direct on-device reaction supported by confined laser irradiation and present a technique where an arbitrary carbon nanotube can be preferentially functionalized within a device by matching the light frequency with its transition energy. An exemplary reaction was carried out between (9,7) nanotube and 4-bromobenzenediazonium tetrafluoroborate. The substrate supported nanotubes of multiple semiconducting chiralities were locally exposed to laser light while monitoring the reaction kinetics in-situ via Raman spectroscopy. The chiral selectivity of the reaction was confirmed by resonant Raman spectroscopy, reporting a 10 meV $E_{22}$ transition energy red-shift only of the targeted species. We further demonstrated this method on a single tube (9,7) electroluminescent device and show a 25 meV red-shifted emission of the ground state $E_{11}$ compared to the emission from the pristine tubes.

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