Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, United States.
ACS Nano. 2013 Aug 27;7(8):7271-7. doi: 10.1021/nn402679u. Epub 2013 Jul 5.
Light polarization is used in the animal kingdom for communication, navigation, and enhanced scene interpretation and also plays an important role in astronomy, remote sensing, and military applications. To date, there have been few photodetector materials demonstrated to have direct polarization sensitivity, as is usually the case in nature. Here, we report the realization of a carbon-based broadband photodetector, where the polarimetry is intrinsic to the active photodetector material. The detector is based on p-n junctions formed between two macroscopic films of single-wall carbon nanotubes. A responsivity up to ~1 V/W was observed in these devices, with a broadband spectral response spanning the visible to the mid-infrared. This responsivity is about 35 times larger than previous devices without p-n junctions. A combination of experiment and theory is used to demonstrate the photothermoelectric origin of the responsivity and to discuss the performance attributes of such devices.
光偏振在动物王国中被用于通讯、导航和增强场景解释，在天文学、遥感和军事应用中也发挥着重要作用。迄今为止，很少有光探测器材料被证明具有直接偏振灵敏度，这在自然界中通常是这样的。在这里，我们报告了一种基于碳的宽带光探测器的实现，其中偏振是活性光探测器材料固有的。该探测器基于两个单壁碳纳米管宏观薄膜之间形成的 p-n 结。在这些器件中观察到高达~1 V/W 的响应度，宽带光谱响应范围从可见光扩展到中红外。与没有 p-n 结的先前器件相比，这种响应度大约大 35 倍。实验和理论的结合用于证明响应度的光热电起源，并讨论这种器件的性能特性。
