Capillary-Assisted Self-Assembly of Carbon Nanotubes for the Self-Powered Photothermoelectric Detector

The development of mid-infrared (MIR) detectors has become a hot research topic with significant progress in low-dimensional materials and clean-room fabrication strategies. Some of the applications of MIR detectors include industrial non-destructive testing, wearable safety monitoring, and other Internet of Things. Photothermoelectric (PTE) mechanism, as a room-temperature free-bias conversion mode, is comprehensively developed in the MIR regimes in the last decade. Although carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and their related materials are demonstrated as effective PTE conversion materials, the large-area scalable detector fabrication based on the Si substrate is still underdeveloped, thus limiting further PTE device designs and industrial applications. Herein, the self-assembly CNT-based detectors driven by the capillary force are fabricated to achieve sensitive and rapid IR detection, and photoresponse measurements of PTE detectors are experimentally performed at room temperature and atmospheric conditions. This work reveals that the PTE mechanism can play a key role in the IR response, thereby broadening horizons about high-performance IR detectors in industrial applications.

Automated summary

The development of mid-infrared (MIR) detectors is a hot research topic with significant progress in low-dimensional materials and clean-room fabrication strategies. These detectors have various applications such as industrial non-destructive testing, wearable safety monitoring, and Internet of Things. This study focuses on the photothermoelectric (PTE) mechanism in MIR detectors and proposes self-assembly carbon nanotube (CNT)-based detectors for sensitive and rapid IR detection. The results demonstrate the potential of PTE mechanism in broadening horizons for high-performance IR detectors in industrial applications.