AVS 45th International Symposium
    Nanometer-scale Science and Technology Division Tuesday Sessions
       Session NS-TuM

Paper NS-TuM9
Carbon Nanotubes: Manipulation, Properties and Functional Electronic Devices

Tuesday, November 3, 1998, 11:00 am, Room 321/322/323

Session: Quantum Structures and Molecular Electronics
Presenter: Ph. Avouris, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
Authors: R. Martel, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
T. Hertel, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
T. Schmidt, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
H. Shea, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
Ph. Avouris, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
Correspondent: Click to Email
Carbon nanotubes (CNT) are materials with unique properties. Depending on their atomic structure, their electronic structure can be that of a metal or semiconductor, and this coupled with their extreme mechanical strength and high thermal conductivity makes them ideal candidates for novel nanoelectronic devices. While discussions of the CNT properties are usually confined to isolated perfectly symmetric tubes, CNT are supported on a solid substrate in actual applications. We will first explore the changes in atomic structure (axial and radial deformations) that result from the adhesion forces between the CNT and the substrate. For this we employee AFM measurements, molecular mechanics and electronic structure calculations. We will show that the deforma tions are significant and can have important consequences for the electrical transport properties of CNT. Next, we will demonstrate that by using the AFM we can manipulate not only the position but also the shape of individual CNTs and in this way fabricate model nano-electronic devices. We will demonstrate a field effect transistor based on a single nanotube (CNT-FET) connected via Schottky barriers to gold electrodes. The resulting band-bending can be controlled by a gate to change the source-drain current by four orders of magnitude at 300 K. Nanotube-based single electron transistors (CNT-SET) will also be demonstrated.