Direct imaging of room temperature optical absorption with subnanometer spatial resolution

Optical absorption can detect individual molecules and nanostructures even in dissipative or strongly quenching environments where fluorescence signals are weak. Here we image optical absorption of individual carbon nanotubes with subnanometer resolution. We show that we can discriminate adjacent nanotubes on a length scale far below the diffraction limit. Then we compare optical absorption imaging of a defect in a single carbon nanotube (CNT) with conventional scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and conventional current-voltage scan (I-V) bandgap profiles. We directly visualize the penetration depth σ′ = 0.9 ± 0.3 nm of the CNT exciton state into the smaller bandgap region of the defect and derive a size σ = 1.8 ± 0.6 nm for the exciton state. Optical absorption provides a spectroscopic map of molecules simultaneously with conventional STM.