Dr. Shi Lei has previously studied the optical band gap of carbon chains through the method of resonance Raman spectroscopy, and proposed a linear relationship between the optical band gap and the peak position of the Raman spectrum. This provides a convenient method for inferring the exciton band gap of the carbon chain by testing the Raman spectrum of the carbon chain. (Lei Shi, et al., Physical Review Materials; 1, 075601, 2017)

     Recently, Carbon published online the collaborated paper between the our group and the research team of Professor Wim Wenseleers and Professor Sofie Cambré from the University of Antwerp in Belgium. We deeply studied the resonance Raman spectra of carbon chains excited by high-energy lasers, and found that the Raman resonance of carbon chains contained two optical band gaps with energy difference of about 0.15 eV and vibrational energy levels in excited states. In addition, theoretical research also predicted the existence of two dark energy levels in the low-energy part (but not observed in experiments).

     PS: Before submitting the paper, Dr. Lei Shi wrote in an email to all the coauthors of the paper: "RRS of LCCs has been my motivation/research plan to start my phd in Thomas's group 10 years ago. I am so happy to see that finally it is close to finishing."

     Paper information: Miles Martinati, Wim Wenseleers*, Lei Shi, Saied Md Pratik, Philip Rohringer, Weili Cui, Thomas Pichler, Veaceslav Coropceanu, Jean-Luc Brédas, Sofie Cambré*. Electronic structure of confined carbyne from joint wavelength-dependent resonant Raman spectroscopy and density functional theory investigations. Carbon 189, 276-283 (2022) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2021.12.059