Electrical Properties of 0.4 cm Long Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

Centimeter scale aligned carbon nanotube arrays are grown from nanoparticle/metal catalyst pads. We find the nanotubes grow both “with” and “against the wind”. A metal underlayer provides in situ electrical contact to these long nanotubes with no post growth processing needed. Using the electrically contacted nanotubes, we study electrical transport of 0.4 cm long nanotubes. The source−drain I−V curves are quantitatively described by a classical, diffusive model. Our measurements show that the outstanding transport properties of nanotubes can be extended to the cm scale and can open the door to large scale integrated nanotube circuits with macroscopic dimensions.