Abstract
Understanding the physics of low-dimensional systems and the operation of next-generation electronics will depend on our ability to measure the electrical properties of nanomaterials at terahertz frequencies (∼100 GHz to 10 THz). Single-walled carbon nanotubes are prototypical one-dimensional nanomaterials because of their unique band structure1,2 and long carrier mean free path3,4,5. Although nanotube transistors have been studied at microwave frequencies (100 MHz to 50 GHz)6,7,8,9,10,11, no techniques currently exist to probe their terahertz response12. Here, we describe the first terahertz electrical measurements of single-walled carbon nanotube transistors performed in the time domain. We observe a ballistic electron resonance that corresponds to the round-trip transit of an electron along the nanotube with a picosecond-scale period. The electron velocity is found to be constant and equal to the Fermi velocity, showing that the high-frequency electron response is dominated by single-particle excitations rather than collective plasmon modes. These results demonstrate a powerful new tool for directly probing picosecond electron motion in nanostructures.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Saito, R., Dresselhaus, G. & Dresselhaus, M. S. Physical Properties of Carbon Nanotubes (Imperial College Press, London, 1998).
McEuen, P. L. & Park, J. Y. Electron transport in single-walled carbon nanotubes. Mater. Res. Soc. Bull. 29, 272–275 (2004).
Park, J. Y. et al. Electron–phonon scattering in metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes. Nano Lett. 4, 517–520 (2004).
Zhou, X. J., Park, J. Y., Huang, S. M., Liu, J. & McEuen, P. L. Band structure, phonon scattering, and the performance limit of single-walled carbon nanotube transistors. Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 146805 (2005).
Purewal, M. S. et al. Scaling of resistance and electron mean free path of single-walled carbon nanotubes. Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 186808 (2007).
Sazonova, V. et al. A tunable carbon nanotube electromechanical oscillator. Nature 431, 284–287 (2004).
Appenzeller, J. & Frank, D. J. Frequency dependent characterization of transport properties in carbon nanotube transistors. Appl. Phys. Lett. 84, 1771–1773 (2004).
Yu, Z. & Burke, P. J. Microwave transport in metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes. Nano Lett. 5, 1403–1406 (2005).
Rosenblatt, S., Lin, H., Sazonova, V., Tiwari, S. & McEuen, P. L. Mixing at 50 GHz using a single-walled carbon nanotube transistor. Appl. Phys. Lett. 87, 153111 (2005).
Plombon, J. J., O'Brien, K. P., Gstrein, F., Dubin, V. M. & Jiao, Y. High-frequency electrical properties of individual and bundled carbon nanotubes. Appl. Phys. Lett. 90, 063106 (2007).
Zhang, M., Huo, X., Chan, P. C. H., Liang, Q. & Tang, Z. K. Radio-frequency characterization for the single-walled carbon nanotubes. Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 163109 (2006).
Karadi, C. et al. Dynamic-response of a quantum point-contact. J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 11, 2566–2571 (1994).
Ferguson, B. & Zhang, X. C. Materials for terahertz science and technology. Nature Mater. 1, 26–33 (2002).
Tonouchi, M. Cutting-edge terahertz technology. Nature Photon. 1, 97–105 (2007).
Kohler, R. et al. Terahertz semiconductor-heterostructure laser. Nature 417, 156–159 (2002).
Bockrath, M. et al. Luttinger-liquid behaviour in carbon nanotubes. Nature 397, 598–601 (1999).
Yao, Z., Postma, H. W. C., Balents, L. & Dekker, C. Carbon nanotube intramolecular junctions. Nature 402, 273–276 (1999).
Liang, W. et al. Fabry–Perot interference in a nanotube electron waveguide. Nature 411, 665–669 (2001).
Kong, J. et al. Quantum interference and ballistic transmission in nanotube electron waveguides. Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 106801 (2001).
Peca, C. S., Balents, L. & Wiese, K. J. Fabry–Perot interference and spin filtering in carbon nanotubes. Phys. Rev. B 68, 205423 (2003).
Burke, P. J. Luttinger liquid theory as a model of the gigahertz electrical properties of carbon nanotubes. IEEE Trans Nanotech. 1, 129–144 (2002).
Yao, Z., Kane, C. L. & Dekker, C. High-field electrical transport in single-wall carbon nanotubes. Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 2941–2944 (2000).
Tombler, T. W. et al. Reversible electromechanical characteristics of carbon nanotubes under local-probe manipulation. Nature 405, 769–772 (2000).
Minot, E. D. et al. Tuning carbon nanotube band gaps with strain. Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 156401 (2003).
Auston, D. H., Cheung, K. P. & Smith, P. R. Picosecond photoconducting Hertzian dipoles. Appl. Phys. Lett. 45, 284–286 (1984).
Ketchen, M. B. et al. Generation of subpicosecond electrical pulses on coplanar transmission-lines. Appl. Phys. Lett. 48, 751–753 (1986).
Ilani, S., Donev, L. A. K., Kindermann, M. & McEuen, P. L. Measurement of the quantum capacitance of interacting electrons in carbon nanotubes. Nature Phys. 2, 687–691 (2006).
Geim, A. K. & Novoselov, K. S. The rise of graphene. Nature Mater. 6, 183–191 (2007).
Lieber, C. M. & Wang, Z. L. Functional nanowires. Mater. Res. Soc. Bull. 32, 99–108 (2007).
Acknowledgements
We thank J. Orenstein and L. Kouwenhoven for early assistance and discussions. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the Cornell Center for Nanoscale Systems, and by the MARCO Focused Research Center on Materials, Structures, and Devices. Sample fabrication was performed at the Cornell Nano-Scale Science and Technology Facility (a member of the National Nanofabrication Infrastructure Network), funded by the NSF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Z.Z. and P.L.M. conceived the experiments. Z.Z. performed the experiments, and analysed the data together with N.M.G. and P.L.M. J.E.S. and A.L.G. provide valuable help on the optics. Z.Z. and P.L.M. co-wrote the paper. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Supplementary information
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhong, Z., Gabor, N., Sharping, J. et al. Terahertz time-domain measurement of ballistic electron resonance in a single-walled carbon nanotube. Nature Nanotech 3, 201–205 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2008.60
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2008.60
This article is cited by
-
Strongly enhanced THz generation enabled by a graphene hot-carrier fast lane
Nature Communications (2022)
-
Angular dependent anisotropic terahertz response of vertically aligned multi-walled carbon nanotube arrays with spatial dispersion
Scientific Reports (2016)
-
Photo-Nernst current in graphene
Nature Physics (2016)
-
Towards realistic time-resolved simulations of quantum devices
Journal of Computational Electronics (2016)
-
The a.c. Josephson effect without superconductivity
Nature Communications (2015)