Optoelectronic properties of nanocarbons and nanocarbon films

Optoelectronics is a broad field of physics which encapsulates materials possessing a desirable combination of optical and electronic properties making them useful in a variety of applications. It is the need for a material to exhibit both optical and electronic functionality which limits the quantity of possible materials with such intrinsic properties. Optoelectronic devices are used in three broad fields of applications, namely telecommunications (signal receivers), electronics (TCEs, LEDs), and energy conversion (photovoltaics). This chapter introduces the fundamental optical and electrical properties of nanocarbons, shows progress toward understanding and predicting nanocarbon properties and discusses applications of nanocarbons in optoelectronic devices. It describes the nomenclature of graphene and its derivatives before their optoelectronic properties. Generally denser/thicker nanocarbon films exhibit better electrical properties, but these denser/thicker films absorb more light. Therefore there is a tradeoff between conductivity and transparency which needs to be combined to optimize TCE properties.