Flexible Ultra-Wideband Terahertz Absorber Based on Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotubes

Dongyang Xiao, Minmin Zhu, Leimeng Sun, Chun Zhao, Yurong Wang, Edwin Hang Tong Teo, Fangjing Hu, Liangcheng Tu

Ultra-wideband absorbers have found wide applications in wireless communications, energy harvesting and stealth applications. Herein, with the combination of experimental and theoretical analyses, we develop a flexible ultra-wideband terahertz (THz) absorber based on vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs). Measured results show that the proposed absorber is able to work efficiently within the entire THz region (e.g., 0.1 to 3.0 THz), with an average power absorptance of >98% at normal incidence. The absorption performance remains very high over a wide incident angle up to 60 degree More importantly, our devices can function normally, even after being bent up to 90 degree or after 300 times of bending. The total thickness of the device is about 360 μm, which is only 1/8 of the wavelength for the lowest evaluated frequency of 0.1 THz. The new insight into the VACNT materials paves the way for applications such as radar cross-section reduction, electromagnetic interference shielding and flexible sensing due to the simplicity, flexibility, ultra-wideband operation and large-scale fabrication of the device.

Journal: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

Volume: 11(46)

Page: 43671-43680

Year: 2019

DOI: 10.1021/acsami.9b14428