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Nanotechnology

A barrier falls

Nature volume 424, pages 622–623 (2003)Cite this article

Electronic devices based on carbon nanotubes have a bright future — even more so now that a way has been found to eliminate the 'Schottky barrier' that hinders the injection of electrons into them.

Since the days of vacuum tubes, a key problem in the use of electronic devices has been getting electrons into the device from a metal connecting wire. Even the tiny transistors now being made from semiconducting carbon nanotubes share this classic problem: their performance is limited by an energy barrier that hinders electrons entering the nanotube. But now it seems that this barrier has fallen. In a paper on page 654 of this issue, Javey et al.1 report the fabrication of nanotube transistors with improved performance, achieved by reducing or eliminating the barrier that electrons must cross from the metal wire into the semiconducting nanotube.

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Figure 1: State of the art.

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References

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  1. IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York, 10598, USA

    J. Tersoff

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  1. J. Tersoff
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Tersoff, J. A barrier falls. Nature 424, 622–623 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/424622a

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/424622a

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