Luminescence of carbon nanotube bulbs

Carbon nanotube (CNT) bulbs made of decimeter-scale double-walled carbon nanotube (DWCNT) strands and films were fabricated and their luminescence properties, including the lighting efficiency, voltage-current relation and thermal stability were investigated. The results show that the DWCNT bulb has a comparable spectrum of visible light with tungsten bulb and its average efficiency is 40% higher than that of a tungsten filament at the same temperature (1400–2300 K). The nanotube filaments show both resistance and thermal stability over a large temperature region. No obvious damage was found for a nanotube bulb illuminating at 2300 K for more than 24 hours in vacuum.