Electrical and optical polarization responses of composite films based on aligned carbon nanotubes

Abstract

A simple and efficient approach for large-area preparation of horizontally-aligned carbon nanotube (CNT)–vanadium oxide (VO_x) composite films is presented. The composite films were prepared by an extended blown-bubble film approach, in which spin coating of VO_x and bubble-blowing of CNTs were combined. Results reveal that one-dimensional CNTs are well horizontally-aligned in the composite films, and the sheet resistance is significantly decreased after the CNTs have been composed with VO_x. Particularly, both anisotropies of electrical and optical responses were experimentally observed in such composite films. Based on the experimental results, a model for elucidating the anisotropy of light absorption was theoretically derived. This work discloses valuable results about the novel horizontally-aligned CNT–VO_x composite films, their preparation, and peculiar electrical and optical properties.