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Probing electrical transport in individual carbon nanotubes and junctions

Tae-Hwan Kim1, John F Wendelken1, An-Ping Li1,3, Gaohui Du2 and Wenzhi Li2,3

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The electrical transport properties of individual carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and multi-terminal junctions of CNTs are investigated with a quadraprobe scanning tunneling microscope. The CNTs used in this study are made of stacked herringbone-type conical graphite sheets with a cone angle of ~20° to the tube axis, and the CNT junctions have no catalytic particles in the junction areas. The CNTs have a significantly higher resistivity than conventional CNTs with concentric walls. The straight CNTs display linear current–voltage (IV) characteristics, indicating diffusive transport rather than ballistic transport. The structural deformation in CNTs with bends substantially increases the resistivity in comparison with that for the straight segments on the same CNTs, and the IV curve departs slightly from linearity in curved segments. The junction area of the CNT junctions behaves like an ohmic-type scattering center with linear IV characteristics. In addition, a gating effect has not been observed, in contrast to the case for conventional multi-walled CNT junctions. These unusual transport properties can be attributed to the enhanced inter-layer interaction in the herringbone-type CNTs.


PACS

73.63.Fg Nanotubes

62.20.F- Deformation and plasticity

62.25.-g Mechanical properties of nanoscale systems

68.37.Ef Scanning tunneling microscopy (including chemistry induced with STM)

81.40.Lm Deformation, plasticity, and creep

Subjects

Surfaces, interfaces and thin films

Condensed matter: structural, mechanical & thermal

Nanoscale science and low-D systems

Dates

Issue 48 (3 December 2008)

Received 30 July 2008, in final form 26 September 2008

Published 11 November 2008



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