Résumé
This work concerns the study of mono- and double-walled carbon nanotubes. It contains two distinct parts: (i) the first part is devoted to the understanding of the intrinsic optical and phonon properties of individual carbon nanotubes; (ii) the second part reports an experimental investigation of the properties of covalently and non-covalently functionalized double-walled carbon nanotubes. Concerning the study of the intrinsic properties of the individual carbon nanotubes, new information was obtained by coupling Raman spectroscopy data, including the measurement of the excitation profiles of different Raman-active modes, with optical absorption and electronic diffraction data. From a general point of view, our approach put in evidence the complementarity of the Raman spectroscopy and electronic diffraction for “the most probable” assignment of the structure of the nanotubes.Among the results obtained on individual single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), one can underline the confirmation of the excitonic character of the optical transitions by combining optical absorption and Raman excitation profiles on the same nanotubes, and the evidence of an unexpected behavior of the relative intensities of the LO and TO components of the G-modes. The study of the index-identified individual double-walled carbon nanotubes has permitted to understand the role of the inter-walls distance in the frequency shifts of the radial breathing-like modes (RBLM) and G-modes, by associating a given inter-walls distance to a negative (positive) internal pressure when this distance is larger (smaller) than 0.34 nm. On the other hand, the role of quantum interferences in the evolution with the excitation energy of the intensities of the LO and TO components of the G-modes was clearly identified. Finally, the assignment of the optical transitions, measured by absorption spectroscopy, of index-identified DWNTs was proposed.The study of the properties of functionalized DWNTs was performed by combining Raman spectroscopy, UV-visible-NIR absorption and photoluminescence (PL), including maps of photoluminescence excitation (PLE), on suspensions of DWNTs before and after functionalization: (i) covalently by using diazonium, (ii) covalently and non-covalently ( stacking) by using dye molecules. This work is a contribution to the debate on an essential question for the use of the DWNTs in opto-electronic devices, namely: “Do the DWNTs they luminesce? And if yes, what is the origin of the luminescence?". The presence of photoluminescence in our samples of DWNTs was established, and the study of its evolution with various kinds and degrees of functionalization states that PL can only result from inner tubes (intrinsic PL of DWNTs), or from SWNTs generated by the extrusion of the internal tubes of DWNTs during the preparation of the suspensions. On the other hand, one must emphasize the evidence of an energy transfer from the dye molecules towards the internal tube when such molecules are covalently grafted on the outer tube.