Abstract

We present a description of a $1.5\mathrm{mm}$ long, vertically aligned carbon nanotube array (VANTA) on a thermopile and separately on a pyroelectric detector. Three VANTA samples, having average lengths of $40\mathrm{\mu m}$, $150\mathrm{\mu m}$, and $1.5\mathrm{mm}$ were evaluated with respect to reflectance at a laser wavelength of $394\mathrm{\mu m}$ ($760\mathrm{GHz}$), and we found that the reflectance decreases substantially with increasing tube length, ranging from 0.38 to 0.23 to 0.01, respectively. The responsivity of the thermopile by electrical heating ($98.4\mathrm{mA}/\mathrm{W}$) was equal to that by optical heating ($98.0\mathrm{mA}/\mathrm{W}$) within the uncertainty of the measurement. We analyzed the frequency response and temporal response and found a thermal decay period of $500\mathrm{ms}$, which is consistent with the specific heat of comparable VANTAs in the literature. The extremely low (0.01) reflectance of the $1.5\mathrm{mm}$ VANTAs and the fact that the array is readily transferable to the detector’s surface is, to our knowledge, unprecedented.

© 2011 Optical Society of America

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