Method of characterizing electrical contact properties of carbon nanotube coated surfaces

Abstract

We present a method for electromechanical characterization of carbon nanotube (CNT) films grown on silicon substrates as potential electrical contacts. The method includes measuring the sheet resistance of a tangled CNT film, measuring the contact resistance between two tangled CNT films, and investigating the dependence on applied force and postgrowth annealing. We also characterize Au-CNT film contact resistance by simultaneous measurement of applied force and resistance. We measure a contact resistance as low as 0.024Ω∕mm2 between two films of tangled single-wall carbon nanotubes grown on a polished silicon substrate and observe an electromechanical behavior very similar to that predicted by classical contact theory.