Suspended Multiwall Carbon Nanotube-Based Infrared Sensors via Roll-to-Roll Fabrication

Sensors sensitive to infrared radiation based on multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) are prepared. The physical suspension and thermal isolation needed for bolometric sensing are achieved by suspending the MWCNTs on polymer gratings fabricated by roll-to-roll (R2R) methods. The physical suspension of MWCNTs on nanoimprinted polymer gratings reduced the thermal link of tubes to the substrate and resulted in an enhanced bolometric photoresponse for the suspended devices. The performance of the R2R fabricated sensor is in the same range as those made by other previously reported wafer batch mode nanofabrication processes and the approximate detectivity of the IR sensor is found to be 4 x 10(6) cm Hz(1/2) /W. The successful R2R sensor fabrication process developed in the present work opens up a new low cost, high volume manufacturing technique for the production of sensors based on 1D nanomaterials.