Optical rectification effect in nanostructured carbon films

Abstract

Electrically conducting nanostructured carbon films obtained by chemical vapor deposition and composed of nanodimensional graphite crystals exhibit the effect of optical rectification on exposure to nanosecond pulsed laser radiation. Experiments show that the amplitude and polarity of the pulsed voltage strongly depend on the angle of incidence and polarization of the laser radiation and on the spatial orientation of a carbon film with electrodes relative to the laser beam. Under the optimum conditions corresponding to maximum amplitude of the response signal, the factor of conversion of the laser pulse power into electric voltage was about 500 and 650 mV/MW at a laser wavelength of 1064 and 532 nm, respectively.