Excitons and Many-Electron Effects in the Optical Response of Single-Walled Boron Nitride Nanotubes

We report first-principles calculations of the effects of quasiparticle self-energy and electron-hole interaction on the optical properties of single-walled BN nanotubes. Excitonic effects are shown to be even more important in BN nanotubes than in carbon nanotubes. Electron-hole interactions give rise to complexes of bright (and dark) excitons, which qualitatively alter the optical response. Excitons with binding energy larger than 2 eV are found in the (8,0) BN nanotubes. Moreover, unlike the carbon nanotubes, theory predicts that these exciton states are comprised of coherent supposition of transitions from several different subband pairs, giving rise to novel behaviors.