An artistic rendering of carbon nanotubes scattering light.
Just as walkie-talkies transmit and receive radio waves, carbon nanotubes can transmit and receive light at the nanoscale, Cornell researchers have discovered. Carbon nanotubes, cylindrical rolled-up sheets of carbon atoms, might one day make ideal optical scattering wires - tiny, mostly invisible antennae with the ability to control, absorb and emit certain colors of light at the nanoscale, according to research led by Jiwoong Park, Cornell assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology. The study, which includes co-author Garnet Chan, also in chemistry, is published online Dec. Nanotechnology. The paper's first author is Daniel Y. Joh, a former student in Park's lab. The researchers used the Rayleigh scattering of light - the same phenomenon that creates the blue sky - from carbon nanotubes grown in the lab. They found that while the propagation of light scattering is mostly classical and macroscopic, the color and intensity of the scattered radiation is determined by intrinsic quantum properties.
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