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Imaging the electrical conductance of individual carbon nanotubes with photothermal current microscopy

Nature Nanotechnology volume 4, pages 108–113 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

The one-dimensional structure of carbon nanotubes1 leads to a variety of remarkable optical2 and electrical3 properties that could be used to develop novel devices4. Recently, the electrical conductance of nanotubes has been shown to decrease under optically induced heating by an amount proportional to the temperature change5. Here, we show that this decrease is also proportional to the initial nanotube conductance, and make use of this effect to develop a new electrical characterization tool for nanotubes. By scanning the focal spot of a laser across the surface of a device through which current is simultaneously measured, we can construct spatially resolved conductance images of both single and arrayed nanotube transistors. We can also directly image the gate control of these devices. Our results establish photothermal current microscopy as an important addition to the existing suite of characterization techniques for carbon nanotubes and other linear nanostructures.

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Figure 1: Laser heating-induced decrease in conductance of an individual carbon nanotube transistor.
Figure 2: Dependence of photothermal current on overall device conductance.
Figure 3: Gate dependence of photothermal current.
Figure 4: PTCM on large-scale carbon nanotube transistors.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank N. M. Gabor and P. L. McEuen for helpful discussions. This work was supported by a grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-07-1-0338) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER grant (DMR-0748530). Sample fabrication was performed at the Cornell Nano-Scale Science and Technology Facility as well as at the Harvard Center for Nanoscale Systems' Nanofabrication Facility.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, 14853, New York, USA

    Adam W. Tsen & Lihong H. Herman

  2. Laboratory of Atomic and Solid-State Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, 14853, New York, USA

    Luke A. K. Donev

  3. The Rowland Institute at Harvard, Harvard University, Cambridge, 02142, Massachusetts, USA

    Huseyin Kurt

  4. Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, 14853, New York, USA

    Jiwoong Park

Authors
  1. Adam W. Tsen
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  2. Luke A. K. Donev
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  3. Huseyin Kurt
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  4. Lihong H. Herman
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  5. Jiwoong Park
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Contributions

A.W.T and J.P conceived the experiments, J.P designed the experimental apparatus and A.W.T performed the experiments and analysed the data with J.P. A.W.T., H.K. and L.A.K.D. fabricated the devices, and L.H.H. aided with the experiments. A.W.T. and J.P. co-wrote the paper. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jiwoong Park.

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Tsen, A., Donev, L., Kurt, H. et al. Imaging the electrical conductance of individual carbon nanotubes with photothermal current microscopy. Nature Nanotech 4, 108–113 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2008.363

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