The synthesis and photophysical properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) tethered with porphyrins was analyzed. The excited-state energy transfer quenching of porphyrin fluorescence by SWNT was found to be dependent on the length of tether. Investigations show that the Raman spectra of the porphyrin-SWNT samples exhibited characteristic peaks after thermal defunctionalization. The results show that the porphyrin-decorated SWNT compete effectively in applications dominated by dye-functionalized nanoparticles.