Electrical conductivity of a single C60 nanotube

Abstract

Electrical conductivity measurements were carried out on a single C60 nanotube fabricated via template growth technique. High resistance was observed from untreated C60 nanotubes. The I-V characteristics of the annealed C60 nanotubes indicate that a Schottky barrier exists between the electrode and the nanotube, which can be modified via annealing in vacuum. The activation energy of the annealed samples is close to the value of single C60 crystal. It was found that the C60 nanotube shows a large photoconductivity under light illumination and is an excellent candidate for optical switch. Our results suggest that the semiconducting C60 nanotube can be used as a rational building block in the construction of hierarchical architectures.