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Using density gradient ultracentrifugation and isopycnic fractionation we structurally sort traditionally prepared single-wall carbon nanotube suspensions, and show that fractions with photoluminescence (PL) quantum yields of over 1% can be isolated. Moreover, we find that traditionally prepared suspensions appear to be composed of a significant fraction of small nanotube aggregates which reduce the quantum yield of the ensembles by a factor of 5 with respect to the most photoluminescent fractions. In order to better understand the nature of the nonradiative decay processes that lead to lower ensemble PL quantum yields, nanotube ropes of diameter enriched tubes are made and compared with the aforementioned ensemble measurements. Changes in the optical properties are discussed in terms of energy transfer to metallic tubes, carbonaceous particles, and smaller band gap tubes.

We report on a pump-probe study of CoMoCAT nanotube suspensions with narrow chirality distribution. Visible pump pulses and a white light continuum are used for resonant excitation of the strongest dipole allowed E 22 subband exciton in the semiconducting (6, 5) tube and for broadband probe of the resulting spectral transients between 1300 nm and 480 nm, respectively. Transient spectra show signatures of both photobleaching (PB) and photoabsorption (PA) with practically identical decay- but slightly different rise-times. The experiments reveal that apparent variations of decay rates at different wavelengths do not reflect dynamics of different relaxation processes but are a consequence of the superposition of PB and blue-shifted PA response.