Elastic single-walled carbon nanotubes pixel matrix electrodes for flexible optoelectronics

Applied Physics Letters. 2022. No. 121. Article 243504.

Mukhangali S., Neplokh V., Kochetkov F., Vorobyev A., Mitin D., Mukhin M., Krasnikov D. K., Tian J., Islamova R., Nasibulin A. G., Mukhin I.

This paper demonstrates an elastic (i.e., both flexible and stretchable) pixel matrix based on the patterned films of single-walled carbon nanotubes, which were obtained using optical lithography and plasma etching. The proposed elastic electrodes maintain their initial resistivity at 10% stretching. We also demonstrate an application of the elastic pixel matrix to an array of III–V semiconductor nanowires encapsulated into the elastic polymer matrix, which paves the way for highly deformable inorganic light-emitting or photodetector devices.

This work was funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation under the strategic academic leadership program “Priority 2030” (Agreement No. 075-15-2021-1333). The SWCNT synthesis was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (Grant No. 22-13-00436). Membrane fabrication was funded by St. Petersburg State University (Project No. 94385659). V.N. thanks the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR Project No. 19-32-60040) for PDMS/MW membrane fabrication.

The authors thank Dr. Vladimir Fedorov for n-GaP NWs sample synthesis.

Keywords: polymers, semiconductor nanostructures, optoelectronics, Nanotubes, electrodes, Photolithography, Inorganic compounds