Nitrogen doping of metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes: n-type conduction and dipole scattering

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that nitrogen doping can induce n-type conduction in metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes, with evidence from electric-field measurements, revealing dipole scattering effects and enabling control over charge carrier type for molecular device applications.

Contribution

It provides experimental evidence that nitrogen doping induces n-type conduction and identifies electric-dipole scattering as a key factor in charge transport in metallic nanotubes.

Findings

Nitrogen doping achieves n-type conduction in metallic SWCNTs.

Electric-dipole scattering dominates charge transport in doped nanotubes.

Doping enables control over charge carrier type in molecular devices.

Abstract

The charge transport properties of individual, metallic nitrogen doped, single-walled carbon nanotubes are investigated. It is demonstrated that n-type conduction can be achieved by nitrogen doping. Evidence was obtained by appealing to electric-field effect measurements at ambient condition. The observed temperature dependencies of the zero-bias conductance indicate a disordered electron system with electric-dipole scattering, caused mainly by the pyridine-type nitrogen atoms in the honeycomb lattice. These results illustrate the possibility of creating all-metallic molecular devices, in which the charge carrier type can be controlled.