Carbon Nanotube Terahertz Detector

• Published in: Nano letters Vol. 14; no. 7; pp. 3953 - 3958
• Main Authors: He, Xiaowei, Fujimura, Naoki, Lloyd, J. Meagan, Erickson, Kristopher J, Talin, A. Alec, Zhang, Qi, Gao, Weilu, Jiang, Qijia, Kawano, Yukio, Hauge, Robert H, Léonard, François, Kono, Junichiro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Chemical Society 09.07.2014
• Subjects: Broadband; Carbon nanotubes; Collective excitations (including excitons, polarons, plasmons and other charge-density excitations); Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Detectors; Devices; Electronic structure and electrical properties of surfaces, interfaces, thin films and low-dimensional structures; Equipment Design; Exact sciences and technology; General equipment and techniques; Instruments, apparatus, components and techniques common to several branches of physics and astronomy; Materials science; Nanocrystalline materials; Nanoscale materials and structures: fabrication and characterization; Nanostructure; Nanotubes; Nanotubes, Carbon - chemistry; Nanotubes, Carbon - ultrastructure; Physics; Polarization; Sensors (chemical, optical, electrical, movement, gas, etc.); remote sensing; Surface and interface electron states; Temperature; Terahertz Radiation; Terahertz Spectroscopy - instrumentation; Thermal management; Thermoelectricity; Carbon nanotubes; polarization sensitive; THz photodetector; broadband; Thermoelectric materials; THz range; Detectors; Plasmons; Seebeck effect; Nanostructured materials; Antennas
• DOI: 10.1021/nl5012678
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992

Terahertz (THz) technologies are promising for diverse areas such as medicine, bioengineering, astronomy, environmental monitoring, and communications. However, despite decades of worldwide efforts, the THz region of the electromagnetic spectrum still continues to be elusive for solid state technology. Here, we report on the development of a powerless, compact, broadband, flexible, large-area, and polarization-sensitive carbon nanotube THz detector that works at room temperature. The detector is sensitive throughout the entire range of the THz technology gap, with responsivities as high as ∼2.5 V/W and polarization ratios as high as ∼5:1. Complete thermoelectric and opto-thermal characterization together unambiguously reveal the photothermoelectric origin of the THz photosignal, triggered by plasmonic absorption and collective antenna effects, and suggest that judicious design of thermal management and quantum engineering of Seebeck coefficients will lead to further enhancement of device performance.