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True-color real-time imaging and spectroscopy of carbon nanotubes on substrates using enhanced Rayleigh scattering

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Abstract

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) illuminated by white light should appear colored due to resonance Rayleigh scattering. However, true-color imaging of SWCNTs on substrates has not been reported, because of the extremely low scattering intensity of SWCNTs and the strong substrate scattering. Here we show that Rayleigh scattering can be greatly enhanced by the interface dipole enhancement effect. Consequently colorful SWCNTs on substrates can be directly imaged under an optical microscope by wide field supercontinuum laser illumination, which facilitates high throughput chirality assignment of individual SWCNTs. This approach, termed “Rayleigh imaging microscopy”, is not restricted to SWCNTs, but widely applicable to a variety of nanomaterials, which enables the colorful nanoworld to be explored under optical microscopes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Low-Dimensional Quantum Physics, Department of Physics & Tsinghua-Foxconn Nanotechnology Research Center, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Wenyun Wu, Jingying Yue, Xiaoyang Lin, Dongqi Li, Jiangtao Wang, Jin Zhang, Yuan Chen, Xinhe Wang, Tianyi Li, Yujun He, Xingcan Dai, Peng Liu, Yang Wei, Jiaping Wang, Li Fan, Lina Zhang, Qunqing Li, Shoushan Fan & Kaili Jiang

  2. Department of Physics, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

    Fangqiang Zhu

  3. State Key Laboratory of Precision Measurement Technology and Instruments, Department of Precision Instruments, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Xue Yin & Jun Zhu

  4. Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing, 100084, China

    Jiaping Wang, Qunqing Li & Kaili Jiang

  5. Tsinghua National Laboratory for Information Science and Technology, Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Wei Zhang & Yidong Huang

Authors
  1. Wenyun Wu
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  2. Jingying Yue
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  3. Xiaoyang Lin
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  4. Dongqi Li
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  5. Fangqiang Zhu
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  6. Xue Yin
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  7. Jun Zhu
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  8. Jiangtao Wang
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  9. Jin Zhang
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  10. Yuan Chen
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  11. Xinhe Wang
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  12. Tianyi Li
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  13. Yujun He
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  14. Xingcan Dai
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  15. Peng Liu
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  16. Yang Wei
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  17. Jiaping Wang
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  18. Wei Zhang
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  19. Yidong Huang
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  20. Li Fan
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  21. Lina Zhang
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  22. Qunqing Li
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  23. Shoushan Fan
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  24. Kaili Jiang
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Xingcan Dai or Kaili Jiang.

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These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Wu, W., Yue, J., Lin, X. et al. True-color real-time imaging and spectroscopy of carbon nanotubes on substrates using enhanced Rayleigh scattering. Nano Res. 8, 2721–2732 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-015-0779-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-015-0779-x

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