  The variation of the optical absorption of carbon nanotubes with their
geometry has been a long standing question at the heart of both metrological
and applicative issues, in particular because optical spectroscopy is one of
the primary tools for the assessment of the chiral species abundance of
samples. Here, we tackle the chirality dependence of the optical absorption
with an original method involving ultra-efficient energy transfer in
porphyrin/nanotube compounds that allows uniform photo-excitation of all chiral
species. We measure the absolute absorption cross-section of a wide range of
semiconducting nanotubes at their S22 transition and show that it varies by up
to a factor of 2.2 with the chiral angle, with type I nanotubes showing a
larger absorption. In contrast, the luminescence quantum yield remains almost
constant.
