Electronic Devices Based on Purified Carbon Nanotubes Grown By High Pressure Decomposition of Carbon Monoxide

TL;DR

This paper presents a purification and fabrication process for single-walled carbon nanotubes grown by high pressure decomposition of carbon monoxide, resulting in improved electronic device performance suitable for complex nanoelectronic circuits.

Contribution

It introduces a new purification and device fabrication method that enhances the electronic properties of SWNTs from bulk-grown HiPCO material.

Findings

Devices show vastly superior electronic characteristics compared to raw HiPCO nanotubes.

Quantitative measurements of energy gaps in semiconducting nanotubes.

Progress towards complex integrated circuits from bulk-grown SWNTs.

Abstract

The excellent properties of transistors, wires, and sensors made from single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) make them promising candidates for use in advanced nanoelectronic systems. Gas-phase growth procedures such as the high pressure decomposition of carbon monoxide (HiPCO) method yield large quantities of small diameter semiconducting SWNTs, which are ideal for use in nanoelectronic circuits. As-grown HiPCO material, however, commonly contains a large fraction of carbonaceous impurities that degrade properties of SWNT devices. Here we demonstrate a purification, deposition, and fabrication process that yields devices consisting of metallic and semiconducting nanotubes with electronic characteristics vastly superior to those of circuits made from raw HiPCO. Source-drain current measurements on the circuits as a function of temperature and backgate voltage are used to quantify the energy gap of semiconducting nanotubes in a field effect transistor geometry. This work demonstrates significant progress towards the goal of producing complex integrated circuits from bulk-grown SWNT material.