LAUSR

Abstract This paper reports tip-enhanced, polarization dependent and excitation energy dependent Raman measurements of an individual long linear carbon chain confined in a double-walled carbon nanotube. We determine the band gap of the chain (2.093 eV) from a Raman resonance profile with a line width Γ = 145 meV , which corresponds to a lifetime of τ = 4.5 fs for the excited state of the chain. In the absence of external perturbations, this suggests that the chain's excited state dynamics depend on the confinement inside the nanotube and therefore on the chirality of the encasing carbon nanotube.