  Photoluminescence is commonly used to identify the electronic structure of
individual nanotubes. But, nanotubes naturally occur in bundles. Thus, we
investigate photoluminescence of nanotube bundles. We show that their complex
spectra are simply explained by exciton energy transfer between adjacent tubes,
whereby excitation of large gap tubes induces emission from smaller gap ones
via Forster interaction between excitons. The consequent relaxation rate is
faster than non-radiative recombination, leading to enhanced photoluminescence
of acceptor tubes. This fingerprints bundles with different compositions and
opens opportunities to optimize them for opto-electronics.

Materials Science