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Carbon nanotubes

A simple approach to superlattices

Nature Nanotechnology volume 4, pages 545–546 (2009)Cite this article

An array of quantum dots can be created inside a carbon nanotube simply by placing it on a crystalline metal substrate.

It may be possible, one day, to make electronic devices that are based on semiconducting carbon nanotubes rather than silicon and other inorganic semiconductors. For this to happen, however, it will be necessary to develop techniques to modulate the electronic structure of the nanotubes and, hence, the current flowing through them. On page 567 of this issue, Hyung-Joon Shin, Sylvain Clair, Yousoo Kim and Maki Kawai of RIKEN and the University of Tokyo report that they have modulated the electronic structure of a nanotube to create an array of quantum wells (also known as a superlattice) with a period below what is possible using optical lithography1. They achieve this by simply placing the nanotube on a crystalline silver(100) surface. Rather than applying an external gate voltage, as happens in conventional electronic devices, they rely on interactions between the nanotube and the surface — both of which have different spatial periods — to produce modulations with a third period that depends on the alignment of the nanotube with respect to the underlying silver lattice.

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Figure 1: Illustration of a (6,2) carbon nanotube on a silver(100) surface.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Joseph W. Lyding is in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Beckman Institute, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA. lyding@illinois.edu,

    Joseph W. Lyding

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  1. Joseph W. Lyding
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Lyding, J. A simple approach to superlattices. Nature Nanotech 4, 545–546 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2009.211

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