Publications

Microwave conductance properties of aligned multiwall carbon nanotube textile sheets

Brown, Brian L.; Martinez, Patricia; Zakhidov, Anvar A.; Shaner, Eric A.; Lee, Mark

Understanding the conductance properties of multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT) textile sheets in the microwave regime is essential for their potential use in high-speed and high-frequency applications. To expand current knowledge, complex high-frequency conductance measurements from 0.01 to 50 GHz and across temperatures from 4.2 K to 300 K and magnetic fields up to 2 T were made on textile sheets of highly aligned MWNTs with strand alignment oriented both parallel and perpendicular to the microwave electric field polarization. Sheets were drawn from 329 and 520 μm high MWNT forests that resulted in different DC resistance anisotropy. For all samples, the microwave conductance can be modeled approximately by a shunt capacitance in parallel with a frequency-independent conductance, but with no inductive contribution. This is consistent with diffusive Drude conduction as the primary transport mechanism up to 50 GHz. Further, it is found that the microwave conductance is essentially independent of both temperature and magnetic field.