Thermally activated low frequency noise in carbon nanotubes

Abstract

The low frequency noise of single-walled carbon nanotubes is studied over the 77–300K temperature range. Lorentzian shaped spectra along with 1∕f noise spectra have been observed. From the Lorentzian noise components, a range of thermal activation energies from 0.08to0.51eV for the associated fluctuation mechanisms is obtained. From the 1∕f noise spectra, a distribution of activation energies of fluctuation processes ranging from 0.2to0.7eV is derived. These findings indicate that the observed noise spectra are caused by number fluctuations.