A semi-analytic method for studying optical properties of aligned carbon nanotubes

A method is presented for calculating the bulk optical properties of aligned carbon nanotubes. The method is based on an improved equivalent dielectric function of carbon nanotubes and an analytical series expression for the effective dielectric function, eeff, of periodic composites. The optical properties of aligned carbon nanotubes are studied using the effective-medium approximation (EMA), the Maxwell–Garnett theory (MGT) and the method presented. It shows that the calculation results using the method presented fit experimental data excellently and are better than those of EMA and MGT.