Diffraction from carbon nanofiber arrays.

A square planar photonic crystal composed of carbon nanofibers was fabricated using e-beam lithography and chemical vapor deposition. The diffraction properties of the system were characterized experimentally and compared with theory and numerical simulations. The intensities of the (-1,0) and (-1,-1) diffraction beams were measured as functions of the angles of incidence for both s and p-polarization. The obtained radiation patterns can be explained using a simple ray interference model, but finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) calculations are necessary to reproduce the observed dependence of the scattered radiation intensity on incident laser polarization. We explain this in terms of the aspect ratio of the nanofibers and the excitation of surface plasmon polaritons at the substrate interface.

Optical properties of carbon nanofiber photonic crystals.

Carbon nanofibers (CNFs) are used as components of planar photonic crystals. Square and rectangular lattices and random patterns of vertically aligned CNFs were fabricated and their properties studied using ellipsometry. We show that detailed information such as symmetry directions and the band structure of these novel materials can be extracted from considerations of the polarization state in the specular beam. The refractive index of the individual nanofibers was found to be n(CNF) = 4.1.

Nanowire-based tunable photonic crystals.

Photonic crystals, materials with periodically varying refractive indices, show exciting optical properties that enable many technological applications. Conventional photonic crystals have optical properties that are determined at the time of fabrication and the ability to tune them is quite limited, particularly at visible frequencies. We investigate theoretically the possibility to use nanowires or nanotubes as the building block for tunable two-dimensional photonic crystals. Tunability is achieved by fabricating flexible nanowires in a periodic pattern and actuating them electrostatically. This changes the lattice basis, which in turn modifies the optical properties of the photonic crystal. We use a finite-difference time-domain method to model photonic crystals with changeable bases. We show that the optical transmission through a two-dimensional photonic crystal with only a few rows of nanowires in the light propagating direction can be electrostatically tuned from over 90% transmission to less than 10%. We demonstrate that tunability is maintained in realistic three-dimensional experimental geometries. Finally, we analyse the performance of the photonic crystals in terms of actuation voltages and tuning speeds, and conclude that the response time of a tunable carbon-nanofibre-based photonic crystal lies in the microsecond range.

A carbon nanotube gated carbon nanotube transistor with 5 ps gate delay.

Semiconducting carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are attractive as channel material for field-effect transistors due to their high carrier mobility. In this paper we show that a local CNT gate can provide a significant improvement in the subthreshold slope of a CNT transistor compared to back gate switching and provide gate delays as low as 5 ps. The CNT gated CNT transistor devices are fabricated using a two-step chemical vapour deposition technique. The measured transfer characteristics are in very good agreement with theoretical modelling results that provide confirmation of the operating principle of the transistors. Gate delays below 2 ps should be readily achievable by reducing the thickness of the gate dielectric.