Carbon Nanotube Transistors: Capacitance Measurements, Localized Damage, And Use As Gold Scaffolding

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes are incredible materials with interesting mechanical and electrical properties. This thesis presents diverse experiments based on carbon nanotube transistors. We measured the capacitance of individual carbon nanotubes. The density of states of a carbon nanotube will in?uence the tube?s capacitance. We report good agreement with theory and that we successfully probe the tube?s density of states. We show it is possible to open holes into the carbon nanotubes without completely destroying the conductance of the tube. The application of localized damage to nanotube transistors opens up several exciting potential device geometries. We also present several experiments where carbon nanotubes are used as nanoscale scaffolding for the deposition and manipulation of gold. Nanometer scale balls of gold are deposited on nanotubes from an atomic force microscope. Nanotubes are also used to in?uence gold wires undergoing electromigration. This thesis demonstrates just some of many novel techniques being applied to carbon nanotubes, and lays groundwork for the exciting applications nanotubes will help realize.