• DOI:10.1021/nl072369t
• Corpus ID: 7412160

Experimental observation of an extremely dark material made by a low-density nanotube array.

@article{Yang2008ExperimentalOO,
  title={Experimental observation of an extremely dark material made by a low-density nanotube array.},
  author={Zu-Po Yang and Lijie Ci and James A. Bur and Shawn-Yu Lin and Pulickel M. Ajayan},
  journal={Nano letters},
  year={2008},
  volume={8 2},
  pages={
          446-51
        }
}

• Zu-Po Yang, L. Ci, +2 authors P. Ajayan
• Published 9 January 2008
• Physics
• Nano letters

An ideal black material absorbs light perfectly at all angles and over all wavelengths. Here, we show that low-density vertically aligned carbon nanotube arrays can be engineered to have an extremely low index of refraction, as predicted recently by theory [Garcia-Vidal, F. J.; Pitarke, J. M.; Pendry, J. B. Phys. Rev. Lett. 1997, 78, 4289-4292] and, combined with the nanoscale surface roughness of the arrays, can produce a near-perfect optical absorption material. An ultralow diffused reflectance of 1 x 10(-7) measured from such arrays is an order-of-magnitude lower compared to commercial low-reflectance standard carbon. The corresponding integrated total reflectance of 0.045% from the nanotube arrays is three times lower than the lowest-ever reported values of optical reflectance from any material, making it the darkest man-made material ever.