Direct and Heterodyne Detection of Microwaves in a Metallic Single Wall Carbon Nanotube

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates microwave detection and heterodyne capabilities in metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes, showing promising responsivity and potential for terahertz applications, with a focus on understanding the detection mechanism.

Contribution

It provides the first measurements of microwave detection in metallic SWCNTs and explores their potential for high-frequency applications beyond microwave frequencies.

Findings

Voltage responsivity of 114 V/W at 77K

Successful heterodyne detection at 1 GHz

Detection mechanism explained by nonlinearity of IV-curve

Abstract

This letter reports measurements of microwave (up to 4.5 GHz) detection in metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes. The measured voltage responsivity was found to be 114 V/W at 77K. We also demonstrated heterodyne detection at 1 GHz. The detection mechanism can be explained based on standard microwave detector theory and the nonlinearity of the DC IV-curve. We discuss the possible causes of this nonlinearity. While the frequency response is limited by circuit parasitics in this measurement, we discuss evidence that indicates that the effect is much faster and that applications of carbon nanotubes as terahertz detectors are feasible.