We present our calculations of the optical absorption for dipole direct transitions in the tight binding zone folding scheme for single wall carbon nanotubes. We have applied the Fermi's golden rule by calculating the electric dipole matrix element and we provide an analytical expression for it. We have calculated the optical absorption of semiconducting zig-zag SWNTs equally distributed and with gaussian distribution of the diameters, where collisional broadening of the density of states was taken into account. The calculated behavior is in agreement with optical density measurements for SWNTs. Our analytical calculations will be useful for the analysis of the optical emission and absorption from single wall carbon nanotubes. © 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

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