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Novel electrical switching behaviour and logic in carbon nanotube Y-junctions

Nature Materials volume 4, pages 663–666 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

Carbon-nanotube-based electronics offers significant potential as a nanoscale alternative to silicon-based devices for molecular electronics technologies. Here, we show evidence for a dramatic electrical switching behaviour in a Y-junction carbon-nanotube1,2,3 morphology. We observe an abrupt modulation of the current from an on- to an off-state, presumably mediated by defects and the topology of the junction. The mutual interaction of the electron currents4 in the three branches of the Y-junction is shown to be the basis for a potentially new logic device. This is the first time that such switching and logic functionalities have been experimentally demonstrated in Y-junction nanotubes without the need for an external gate. A class of nanoelectronic architecture and functionality, which extends well beyond conventional field-effect transistor technologies5,6, is now possible.

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Figure 1: The CNT Y-junction morphology and experimental arrangement for measuring transport properties.
Figure 2: Current (I)–voltage (V) characteristics of a Y-junction.
Figure 3: Observation of near-perfect electrical switching in Y-junctions.
Figure 4: Frequency response of the switching characteristic in the Y-junction.
Figure 5: The CNT Y-junction for logic applications.

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Acknowledgements

P.R.B. acknowledges useful discussions with M. Di Ventra and J. Lagerkvist. We also thank graduate students N. Gothard and J. Gaillard for synthesizing the Y-junction nanotubes, and P. Yu who set up the LabView programs for data acquisition. We acknowledge the support of the work by NSF-NIRTs under Grant numbers DMI-0210559, DMI-0303790, DMI-0304019 and University of California Discovery Fund under Grant No. ele02-10133/Jin.

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  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, 92093-0411, USA

    P. R. Bandaru, C. Daraio & S. Jin

  2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Kinard Laboratory of Physics, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, 29634-0978, USA

    A. M. Rao

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  1. P. R. Bandaru
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Correspondence to P. R. Bandaru.

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Bandaru, P., Daraio, C., Jin, S. et al. Novel electrical switching behaviour and logic in carbon nanotube Y-junctions. Nature Mater 4, 663–666 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1450

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