Résumé
We will report on the use of optical methods to address the relation between nanotube structure and growth conditions. First, we will present in situ and ex situ Raman studies of the evolution of the SWCNT population during their growth by CCVD [1]. Importantly, this study reveals that the nanotube diameter distribution strongly evolves during growth but in dissimilar ways depending on the growth conditions which is explained by the kinetic competition between catalyst ripening and nanotube growth. Second, we will show how recently developed polarization-based methods [2] can be used to image the growth of individual SWCNTs on substrate with time resolution of a few tens of ms. Third, we will describe a comprehensive model of the spectra of individual SWCNTs on substrate obtained with the same polarization-based setup [3]. Importantly, this model includes the influence of the commonly used anti-reflection substrates (e.g. SiO 2 /Si), and of coherent and non-coherent depolarization by the optics. This model allows extracting both the real and imaginary parts of the nanotube susceptibility and improving the methodology of chirality assignment.