Optically controlled dielectric properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes for terahertz wave applications

Materials with tunable dielectric properties are valuable for a wide range of electronic devices, but are often lossy at terahertz frequencies. Here we experimentally report the tuning of the dielectric properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes under light illumination. The effect is demonstrated by measurements of impedance variations at low frequency as well as complex dielectric constant variations in the wide frequency range of 0.1–1 THz by time domain spectroscopy. We show that the dielectric constant is significantly modified for varying light intensities. The effect is also practically applied to phase shifters based on dielectric rod waveguides, loaded with carbon nanotube layers. The carbon nanotubes are used as tunable impedance surface controlled by light illumination, in the frequency range of 75–500 GHz. These results suggest that the effect of dielectric constant tuning with light, accompanied by low transmission losses of the carbon nanotube layer in such an ultra-wide band, may open up new directions for the design and fabrication of novel Terahertz and optoelectronic devices.