The defects in single-wall carbon nanotubes irradiated with a 248nm pulsed excimer laser were studied using Raman spectroscopy. The thermal relaxation kinetics of the laser-induced defects were examined at sample temperatures from 296 to 698K. Two relaxation processes were revealed; one was a fast process with an activation energy of 0.4eV and the other was a slow process with an activation energy of 0.7eV. These two processes were suggested to correspond to vacancy-interstitial recombination and vacancy migration along the tube axis, respectively.

Thermal Relaxation Kinetics of Defects in Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes. T.Uchida, M.Tachibana, K.Kojima: Journal of Applied Physics, 2007, 101[8], 084313