Damage of thermal detector platforms based on metal-carbon nanotube composites

Published

September 25, 2006

Author(s)

Laurence Lewis, Christopher L. Cromer, Krishna Ramadurai, Roop Mahajan, John H. Lehman

Abstract

Today's standards for laser power and energy measurements are inadequate for tomorrow's high efficiency diode and fiber lasers. To meet this need, a new generation of thermal detector platforms based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and metal is being developed. Commercially available CNTs were selected based on the promise of high thermal conductivity and optical absorptivity reported in the literature. We discuss several techniques for the fabrication of thermal detector platforms including CNTs airbrushed on metal, aligned CNTs grown on copper, and a recently developed electroplating process. In the latter method CNTs were deposited with nickel on copper and then chemically etched to remove surface layers of nickel, thereby exposing the CNTs. We report qualitative evaluation of coating damage at laser irradiance at 10.6 υm up to 10 kW/cm2 by scanning electron microscopy. In addition we present quantitative evaluation of optical properties and thermal conductivity.

Proceedings Title

Boulder Damage Symposium Annual Symposium on Optical Materials for High-Power Lasers

Conference Dates

September 25-27, 2006

Conference Location

Boulder, CO, USA

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

carbon nanotubes, damage, laser irradiance, metal composite, thermal conductivity

Citation

Lewis, L. , Cromer, C. , Ramadurai, K. , Mahajan, R. and Lehman, J. (2006), Damage of thermal detector platforms based on metal-carbon nanotube composites, Boulder Damage Symposium Annual Symposium on Optical Materials for High-Power Lasers, Boulder, CO, USA, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=32345 (Accessed October 11, 2025)