  We investigate theoretically the efficiency of intra-molecular hot carrier
induced impact ionization and excitation processes in carbon nanotubes. The
electron confinement and reduced screening lead to drastically enhanced
excitation efficiencies over those in bulk materials. Strong excitonic coupling
favors neutral excitations over ionization, while the impact mechanism
populates a different set of states than that produced by photoexcitation. The
excitation rate is strongly affected by optical phonon excitation and a simple
scaling of the rate with the field strength and optical phonon temperature is
obtained.
