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We investigate the anti-Stokes Raman scattering of single carbyne chains confined inside double-walled carbon nanotubes. Individual chains are identified using tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS) and heated by resonant excitation with varying laser powers. We study the temperature dependence of carbyne's Raman spectrum and quantify the laser-induced heating based on the anti-Stokes/Stokes ratio. Due to its molecular size and its large Raman cross section, carbyne holds great promise for local temperature monitoring, with potential applications ranging from nanoelectronics to biology.

A simple, high throughput fractionation procedure for aqueous/SDS (sodium dodecyl sulfate) suspensions of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) is presented, which yields thin bundles of semiconducting-SWNTs with small chiral angles. To demonstrate this we show the photoluminescence signatures of nanotube suspensions that contain almost exclusively zigzag and near-zigzag tubes. Starting suspensions and resulting fractions were characterized using optical absorption, resonance Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopies as well as scanning force microscopy. Taken together with literature observations, our findings suggest that near zigzag edge tubes of similar diameters in a bundle are harder to separate from each other than for other chiral index combinations. We discuss the implications of these observations for SWNT growth and dispersion.