Ultrafast electron dynamics and cubic optical nonlinearity of freestanding thin film of double walled carbon nanotubes

Ultrafast degenerate pump-probe experiments performed on a freestanding film of double walled carbon nanotubes near the first metallic transition energy of outer tube show ultrafast (97 fs) photobleaching followed by a photoinduced absorption with a slow relaxation of 1.8 ps. Femtosecond closed and open aperture z-scan experiments carried out at the same excitation energy show saturation absorption and negative cubic nonlinearity. From these measurements, real and imaginary part of the third order nonlinear susceptibility are estimated to be Re(chi((3)))similar to-2.2x10(-9) esu and Im(chi((3)))similar to 4.5x10(-11) esu. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.