A carbon nanotubes photoconductive detector for middle and far infrared regions based on porous silicon and a polyamide nylon polymer

Physics Department, College of Science, University of Baghdad, 10071 Baghdad, Iraq

^a e-mail: Wasan_alazawi@yahoo.com

Received: 24 February 2015
Revised: 14 April 2015
Accepted: 15 May 2015
Published online: 15 June 2015

Abstract

Sensitive and good response photoconductive detectors working in the middle and far infrared regions were fabricated. These detectors were fabricated based on multi and double walled carbon nanotube films and works at room temperature. The films were deposited on a porous silicon (PSi) nanosurface. The surfaces were functionalized by a thin layer of polyamide nylon polymer to improve the photoresponsivity of the fabricated detectors. The response time of the fabricated MWCNTs-PSi detectors were 30 and 0.22 ms for the middle and far IR region respectively. The functionalisation of the MWCNTs-PSi film surface by the polyamide nylon polymer improved the photoconductive gain, photoresponsivity, and specific conductivity in both MWCNTs-PSi and DWCNTs-PSi detectors. The designed carbon nanotube (CNT) based photodetector has low cost, high sensitivity and reasonable speed for the middle and far IR spectral range without cooling.