Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 21 April 2006:
Vol. 312. no. 5772, pp. 413 - 416
DOI: 10.1126/science.1125695

Reports

Bolometric Infrared Photoresponse of Suspended Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Films

Mikhail E. Itkis, Ferenc Borondics,* Aiping Yu, Robert C. Haddon{dagger}

The photoresponse in the electrical conductivity of a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) film is dramatically enhanced when the nanotube film is suspended in vacuum. We show here that the change in conductivity is bolometric (caused by heating of the SWNT network). Electron-phonon interactions lead to ultrafast relaxation of the photoexcited carriers, and the energy of the incident infrared (IR) radiation is efficiently transferred to the crystal lattice. It is not the presence of photoexcited holes and electrons, but a rise in temperature, that results in a change in resistance; thus, photoconductivity experiments cannot be used to support the band picture over the exciton model of excited states in carbon nanotubes. The photoresponse of suspended SWNT films is sufficiently high that they may function as the sensitive element of an IR bolometric detector.

Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering, Departments of Chemistry and Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521–0403, USA.

* Present address: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, Szliárdtestfizikai és Optikai Kutatóintézete, Budapest, H 1525, Hungary.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: haddon{at}ucr.edu

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Photoconductive Coaxial Nanotubes of Molecularly Connected Electron Donor and Acceptor Layers.
Y. Yamamoto, T. Fukushima, Y. Suna, N. Ishii, A. Saeki, S. Seki, S. Tagawa, M. Taniguchi, T. Kawai, and T. Aida (2006)
Science 314, 1761-1764
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »



ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products


Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)