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Substrate-induced array of quantum dots in a single-walled carbon nanotube

Nature Nanotechnology volume 4, pages 567–570 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Single-walled carbon nanotubes are model one-dimensional structures1,2,3,4,5,6. They can also be made into zero-dimensional structures; quantum wells can be created in nanotubes by inserting metallofullerenes7, by mechanical cutting8,9,10 or by the application of mechanical strain11. Here, we report that quantum dot arrays can be produced inside nanotubes simply by causing a misalignment between the nanotube and the 〈100〉 direction of a supporting silver substrate. This method does not require chemical or physical treatment of either the substrate or the nanotube. A short quantum dot confinement length of 6 nm results in large energy splittings.

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Figure 1: Two types of quantum-well structures realized in single-walled carbon nanotubes.
Figure 2: Periodic modulations in a nanotube on Ag(100).
Figure 3: Epitaxial relationships between the (6, 2) nanotube of Fig. 2, and Ag(100).
Figure 4: Substrate-induced quantum confinement in the nanotube.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Young Kuk for helpful discussions. This work was supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A), ‘Single-molecule chemistry on the single-walled carbon nanotubes’, and partially by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas, ‘Electron transport through a linked molecule in nano-scale’, from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), and in part by Global COE Program (Chemistry Innovation through Cooperation of Science and Engineering), MEXT, Japan.

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Author notes

  1. Sylvain Clair

    Present address: Present address: Aix-Marseille Université, Institut Matériaux, Microélectronique et Nanosciences de Provence, CNRS UMR 6242, Campus de Saint-Jérôme, Case 142, F-13397 Marseille Cedex, France,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Surface Chemistry Laboratory, RIKEN, Wako, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan

    Hyung-Joon Shin, Sylvain Clair, Yousoo Kim & Maki Kawai

  2. Department of Applied Chemistry, The University of Tokyo 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan

    Hyung-Joon Shin & Maki Kawai

  3. Department of Advanced Materials Science, The University of Tokyo 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, 277-8561, Chiba, Japan

    Sylvain Clair & Maki Kawai

Authors
  1. Hyung-Joon Shin
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  2. Sylvain Clair
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  3. Yousoo Kim
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  4. Maki Kawai
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Contributions

H.S., S.C. and Y.K. conceived and designed the experiments. H.S. and S.C. performed the experiments and analysed the data. H.S. wrote the paper. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yousoo Kim or Maki Kawai.

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Shin, HJ., Clair, S., Kim, Y. et al. Substrate-induced array of quantum dots in a single-walled carbon nanotube. Nature Nanotech 4, 567–570 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2009.182

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