A tunable carbon nanotube polarizer.

The electro-optic response of a carbon nanotube (CNT) cluster has been investigated. The cluster absorbs incident light before stretching. In the presence of an electric field, the cluster starts stretching along the field direction and contracts back to its original stage when the applied voltage is removed. The stretched cluster absorbs and transmits incident light with its electric vector propagating parallel and perpendicular to the long axis of the stretched cluster, respectively. Utilizing this selective light absorption property of a CNT cluster, a tunable polarizer or non-emissive light modulator can be realized.