Abstract

Biological molecule retinal undergoing a cis-trans isomerization in response to light, creating a cascade of events leading to visual recognition. Here, azobenzene molecules with dipole moments are non-covalently (π-π weak interaction) latched on SWNTs and graphene inspired by vision bionics, resulting controllable doping of SWNTs and graphene. Furthermore, azobenzene molecules offer the additional flexibility of introducing light-triggered reversible change of dipole moment magnitude by molecular transformations to switch the doping behavior. Those will motivate the way to open band gap and modulate the semiconductor properties of graphene, guiding the design of novel SWNTs and graphene-based materials, developing new properties of SWNTs and graphene hybrids, which can be applied in semiconductor and energy materials.

© 2015 Optical Society of America