Electrical characterization of individual carbon nanotubes grown in nanoporous anodic alumina templates

Abstract

We report electrical transport measurements of individual carbon nanotubes grown catalytically in a nanoporous anodic aluminum oxide template by thermal chemical vapor deposition of acetylene. The four-terminal resistance at room temperature scales linearly with the nanotube length indicating diffusive nature of transport. The conductance shows an exp[(−1/T)1/3] dependence on temperature T, suggesting that two-dimensional variable-range hopping is the dominant conduction mechanism. The maximum current density carried by these nanotubes is on the order of 106 A/cm2.