Lange, Christian; Shen, T.-C. (Utah State University)
Faculty Advisor: Shen, T.-C. (College of Science, Physics Department)
An ideal black surface should have low reflectance uniformly across the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. Black paints are not ideal because they have specific reflection peaks and bands. Vertically aligned nanopillars of proper shapes and physical properties are good candidates, but the fabrication and oxidation in air are challenging. Carbon nanotube (CNT) forests could be a cheap alternative but the optical properties are sensitive to the density, length, and alignment of the CNTs in a forest. A model to understand the correlation between the morphology and optical reflectance of CNT forests and strategies to achieve extremely low reflectance in the infrared region will be presented.