Single-walled carbon nanotube membranes as non-reflective substrates for nanophotonic applications

Abstract

We demonstrate that single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) membranes can be successfully utilized as nanometer-thick substrates for enhanced visualization and facilitated study of individual nanoparticles. As model objects, we transfer optically resonant 200 nm silicon nanoparticles onto pristine and ethanol-densified SWCNT membranes by the femtosecond laser printing method. We image nanoparticles by scanning electron and bright-field optical microscopy, and characterize by linear and Raman scattering spectroscopy. The use of a pristine SWCNT membrane allows to achieve an order-of-magnitude enhancement of the optical contrast of the nanoparticle bright field image over the results shown in the case of the glass substrate use. The observed optical contrast enhancement is in agreement with the spectrophotometric measurements showing an extremely low specular reflectance of the pristine membrane (≤0.1%). Owing to the high transparency, negligibly small reflectance and thickness, SWCNT membranes offer a variety of perspective applications in nanophotonics, bioimaging and synchrotron radiation studies.

Electronic Properties and Band Gaps of Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes Using <i>π</i> Orbitals Tight-Binding Model: A Comparative Study with <i>Ab Initio</i> Density Functional Theory

“…The electronic band structure for the zigzag tubes (10, 0), (12, 0), (14, 0), (15, 0), (16, 0) and (17, 0) (see Fig. 1) and for the armchair tubes (4,4), (6,6), (8,8), (10,10), (14,14) and (16,16) (see Fig. 2) were determined and investigated using TB calculations including π orbitals only in the high symmetry directions in the BZ between the Γ and K points.…”

“…Since the discovery of SWCNTs in 1993 [2], this novel nanostructured material has attracted enormous attention from the scientific community in several fields due to their extraordinary mechanical, electrical, thermal, vibrational and optical properties [3][4][5][6][7]. This unique combination of properties make this material a suitable candidate for a wide range of various potential applications in areas from integrated circuits [8], photovoltaics [9], nanophotonic applications [10], energy storage [11], interconnects [12,13], spintronic devices [14], sensors [15], batteries [16], transistors [17,18], light detectors [19] and light emitters [20]. This has sparked interest in experimentalists and theoreticians.…”

Morphology and characteristics of polyethersulfone membrane modified with polyethylene glycol hexadecyl ether and nanocarbon

“…This study reported that using SWCNT produced a membrane with better optical contrast than a pristine membrane. The high transparency yield, low reflection rate, and small thickness make SWCNT membranes potential for applications in nanophotonics, bioimaging, and the science of synchrotron radiation [15] .…”