Geneva University

Ecole de physique - Département de physique nucléaire et corpusculaire

24, Quai Ernest-Ansermet
1211 GENEVE 4
Tél: (022) 379 62 73 - Fax: (022) 379 69 92

Wednesday 19 March 2008
PARTICLE PHYSICS SEMINAR
at 17.00 – Stückelberg Auditorium
Use of Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes for UV radiation detection

by Prof. Michelangelo Ambrosio, INFN, Naple

Optical and electrical properties of carbon nanotubes (CNT) have been widely investigated in the last years in view of their applications like: photo detection, solar cells, nano-electronics, opto-electronics, and so on. Sensitivity of Single-Walled CNT (SWCNT) to IR radiation has been demonstrated by different authors. Although the large interest in photo-sensitive properties of nanotubes, most of the work has been done on SWCNTs. The distribution of electronic states and electronic transitions is much more difficult to be predicted in MWCNTs than in SWCNTs. This makes, in fact, difficult any comparison between experimental work and theoretical predictions when Multi-Walled CNTs are used. However, interesting photocurrent properties have recently been observed also in samples containing Multi-Walled CNTs.

In this talk we report on measurements of CNT sensitivity to the radiation and on the realization and characterization of a prototype light detector based on MWCNTs. The results suggest that, despite the difficulty in modelling, the complex electronic structure of MWCNTs could be of advantage for the photosensitivity of CNTs-based devices by broadening the photo-response spectrum through the increasing of the possible electronic configurations and transitions.

Information:
http://dpnc.unige.ch/seminaire/annonce.html
Organizer: J.-S. Graulich