Locally addressable tunnel barriers within a carbon nanotube

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the creation of independently controllable tunnel barriers within a carbon nanotube by mechanically inducing kinks and using top gates, enabling precise conductance control.

Contribution

It introduces a method to form and control tunnel barriers inside a nanotube using mechanical kinks and gate electrodes, a novel approach for nanoscale electronic devices.

Findings

Kinks act as gate-controlled tunnel barriers.

Gates near kinks significantly influence conductance.

Overall conductance can be tuned via kink or contact transmission.

Abstract

We report the realization and characterization of independently controllable tunnel barriers within a carbon nanotube. The nanotubes are mechanically bent or kinked using an atomic force microscope, and top gates are subsequently placed near each kink. Transport measurements indicate that the kinks form gate-controlled tunnel barriers, and that gates placed away from the kinks have little or no effect on conductance. The overall conductance of the nanotube can be controlled by tuning the transmissions of either the kinks or the metal-nanotube contacts.