ELECTRONIC ALPPLICATIONS OF CARBON NANOTUBES

Introduction

The remarkable properties of carbon nanotubes may allow them to play a crucial role in the
relentless drive towards miniaturization at the nanometre scale.

Nanotechnology is predicted to spark a series of industrial revolutions in the next two decades
that will transform our lives to a far greater extent than silicon microelectronics did in the 20th
century. Carbon nanotubes could play a pivotal role in this upcoming revolution if their
remarkable electrical and mechanical properties can be exploited.

Since the first measurements were made in 1997, these rolled up sheets of graphite have captured
the imagination of researchers around the world. Progress in understanding the basic physics and
chemistry of nanotubes has advanced at a phenomenal rate - and shows no signs of slowing.

Carbon nanotubes can be considered as a single sheet of graphite rolled in the form of a tube,
though it is not actually made by rolling one. They were first observed by a Japanese scientist
Sumio Iijima in the early part of the 1990’s. The tubes that consist of a single layer of graphite is
termed as ‘Single walled nanotubes’ and the ‘Multi-walled tubes are those consisting of more
than a single layer in the form of concentric cylinders.

Both these types have their respective fields of applications in the industry and the scientific
scenario. Nanotubes have an impressive list of attributes. They can behave like metals or
semiconductors, can conduct electricity better than copper, can transmit heat better than diamond,
and they rank among the strongest materials known - not bad for structures that are just a few
nanometres across. Several decades from now we may see integrated circuits with components
and wires made from nanotubes, and maybe even buildings that can snap back into shape after an
earthquake.
 Electronic Structure of nanotubes.

The remarkable electrical properties of single wall carbon nanotubes stem from the unusual
electronic structure of “graphene”- the 2-D material from which they are made. (Graphene is
simply a single atomic layer of graphite.). The band structure of graphene is not same as that of a
metal or a semiconductor. Instead it is in between these two extremes. In most directions,
electrons moving at the Fermi energy are backscattered by atoms in the lattice whereas in some
others they don’t. Graphene therefore can be considered as a semi-metal, since it is metallic in
these special directions and semiconducting in the others. Thus a nanotube can be either a metal
or a semiconductor, depending on how the tube is rolled up.

Whereas the multiwall nanotubes were tens of nanometres across, the typical diameter of a
single-wall nanotube was just one or two nanometres. The past decade has seen an explosion of
research into both types of nanotube. The multi walled carbon nanotubes should behave slightly
different to their single walled relatives due to the interaction of the adjacent layers. Though
various theories can be incorporated, many of them may not hold true for such microscopic
materials.

Nanotubes as one dimensional metals

Solid –state devices in which electrons are confined to two-dimensional planes have provided
some of the exciting scientific and technological breakthroughs of the past many decades.
However, 1-D systems are also proving to be very exciting. Studies of quasi 1-D systems, such as
conducting polymers , study of ballistic systems, electron waveguides and many other fields that
may transform the face of electronics fall into this category. The 1-d systems on which these
phenomena can be studied have been limited by the fact that they are inherently complex to
make. What has been lacking is the perfect model system for exploring one dimensional transport
– a 1-d conductor that is cheap and easy to make. , can be individually manipulated and
measured, and has little structural disorder. Single walled carbon nanotubes fit this bill
remarkably well.

Nanotubes are ideal systems for studying the transport of electrons in one dimension, and have
commercial potential as nanoscale wires, transistors and sensors. For many years, studies of
quasi-one-dimensional systems, such as conducting polymers, have provided a fascinating insight
into the nature of electronic instabilities in one dimension. In addition, 1-D devices such as
"electron waveguides" - in which electrons propagate through a narrow channel of material - have
been created. Experiments on these devices have shown, for example, that the conductance of
"ballistic" 1-D systems - in which electrons travel the length of the channel without being
scattered - is quantized in units of the charge on the electron squared divided by the Planck
constant.
One-dimensional conductors are also predicted to have unusual electronic properties that cannot
be explained by Fermi-liquid theory - the theory that can predict the properties of most materials.
Here, we will concentrate on two recent experiments that address the question of whether
multiwall nanotubes are ballistic or diffusive conductors.

An ingenious way to measure the electrical conductance of multiwall nanotubes is as follows. A

macroscopic fibre of multiwall nanotubes was gently lowered into a drop of liquid metal. Because
individual nanotubes stick out from the fibre, it is possible, by dipping the nanotubes to different
depths, to determine the resistance of individual nanotubes. This technique also allows any
variation of resistance with length to be detected.

In various experiments multiwall nanotubes appeared to be ballistic conductors, despite the

interactions expected between the different layers. Moreover, the electrical current that could be
passed through a multiwall nanotube corresponded to a current density in excess of 107 amps per
square centimetre. If nanotubes were classical resistors, the power dissipated by such a current
would heat the nanotube so much that it would vaporize. The fact that this does not happen
suggests that the electrons in nanotubes are strongly decoupled from the lattice. "Hot" electrons
are efficiently removed by the liquid-metal contact rather than being converted into lattice
vibrations.

Since multiwall nanotubes consist of several concentrically arranged single-wall nanotubes, one
would not expect them to behave as one-dimensional conductors. If adjacent carbon layers
interact as in graphite, electrons would not be confined to one layer. The results from de Heer and
co-workers suggest, however, that the current mainly flows through the outermost layer. It
appears therefore that the inner layers only provide mechanical support, although this might
change if we were able to make electrical contact with all the layers. However, the question of
whether the electron transport is ballistic or diffusive remains unresolved

The unique mechanical and electronic properties of multiwall nanotubes are proving to be a
rich source of new physics and could also lead to new applications in materials and devices .

More on Electronic properties

Carbon nanotubes are giant molecular wires in which electrons can propagate freely, just as they
do in an ordinary metal. This contrasts strongly with conventional "conducting" polymers in
which the electrons are localized. These molecules are actually insulators and only become
conductors if they are heavily doped. Graphite, on the other hand, can conduct electricity because
one of the four valence electrons associated with each carbon atom is delocalized and can
therefore be shared by all the carbon atoms.

However, it turns out that a single sheet of graphite (also known as graphene) is an electronic
hybrid: although not an insulator, it is not a semiconductor or a metal either. Graphene is a
"semimetal" or a "zero-gap" semiconductor.

This peculiarity means that the electronic states of graphene are very sensitive to additional
boundary conditions, such as those imposed by rolling the graphene into a tube. It can be shown
that a stationary electron wave can only develop if the circumference of the nanotube is a
multiple of the electron wavelength. This boundary condition means that a nanotube is either a
true metal or a semiconductor - a fact that has been confirmed in experiments with single-wall
nanotubes.
One would expect to find more complex behaviour for multiwall nanotubes because of
interactions between adjacent layers, and this is the subject of ongoing research. Moreover, by
combining different nanotubes, and supplementing them with gate electrodes, there is the
potential to make a wide variety of electronic devices, ranging from quantum wires to field effect
transistors.

On the fundamental side, a perfect metallic nanotube should be a ballistic conductor: in other
words, every electron injected into the nanotube at one end should come out the other end.
Although a ballistic conductor does have some resistance, this resistance is independent of its
length, which means that Ohm's law does not apply. Indeed, only a superconductor (which has no
electrical resistance whatsoever) is a better conductor.

A defect-free carbon nanotube is like an optical fibre. Fibres with large cores are called multi-
mode fibres because several wavelengths (or eigenmodes) are allowed to propagate, usually at
different speeds, along the fibre. For data transmission, so-called single-mode fibres are preferred
because they allow for higher data rates. A single-wall nanotube is almost a single-mode fibre for
electrons. Theory predicts the existence of two propagating eigenmodes for a single-wall
nanotube, independent of its diameter. The electric conductance (the inverse of the resistance) is
then expected to be twice the fundamental quantum of conductance, G0 = 2e2/h, where e is the
charge on the electron and h is the Planck constant. This means that nanotubes are predicted to
have a minimum resistance of about 6500 Ohms, independent of their length.

Field emission
The small diameter of carbon nanotubes is very favourable for field emission - the process by
which a device emits electrons when an electric field or voltage is applied to it. Field emission is
important in several areas of industry, including lighting and displays, and the relatively low
voltages needed for field emission in nanotubes could be an advantage in many applications.
However, as with all new technologies, there are formidable obstacles to be overcome.

To make a field-emission source with just one nanotube, individual multiwall nanotubes were
mounted onto a gold tip. The nanotubes were kept in place by van der Waals forces alone (i.e.
adhesive was not used). The field emissions from multiwall nanotubes with open and closed ends
were compared. Nanotubes grown in arc discharges are normally closed, but they can be opened
by applying a very large electric field, or by treating them with oxygen at high temperature. Field
emission occurred when a potential of a few hundred volts was applied to the gold tip. Both open
and closed nanotubes were capable of emitting currents as high as 0.1 mA, which represents a
tremendous current density for such a small object.

Surprisingly, closed nanotubes were much more efficient than open ones. This was surprising
because the smaller effective curvature of the open nanotubes was expected to lead to a larger
field amplification. It is now thought that other species (such as oxygen atoms) attach themselves
to the free dangling bonds at the end of the nanotube, resulting in localized electron states. Since
these states lie well below the Fermi energy in the nanotube, they cannot emit electrons.
Localized states are also thought to form at the tips of closed nanotubes. However, these states
couple to so-called -orbitals in the nanotube and this effectively enhances the emission of
electrons. This also has the advantage of narrowing the energy distribution of the emitted
electrons. Electron microscopy is one application in which this effect would be very useful.
Measuring Conductance of nanotubes
Before we can measure the conducting properties of a nanotube, we have to wire up the tube by
attaching metallic electrodes to it. The electrodes, which can be connected to either a single tube
or a bundle of tubes, are usually made using electron-beam lithography. This can be done in many
ways and many others are on the way to becoming feasible in the lab. These include the
possibility of growing the tubes between electrodes, or by attaching the tubes to the surface in a
controllable fashion using either electrostatic or chemical forces. Other relatively conventional
methods include the making of the electrodes and dropping the nanotubes onto them. Another is
to deposit the tubes on the substrate, locate them with a scanning probe microscope, and then
attach leads to the tubes using lithography.

The “source” and the “drain “ electrodes allow the conducting properties to be measured. In
addition a third terminal –“gate” is often used. The gate and the tube act like the two plates of a
capacitor, which means that the gate can be used to electrostatically induce carriers on the tube.
When the conductance of the tubes are measured as a function of the gate voltage, two types of
behaviour are observed, corresponding to metal and semiconductor tubes.

Applying the conductance properties.

1.Nanotube Transistors
Semiconducting nanotubes can work as transistors. The tube can be made to conduct by applying
a negative bias to the gate and turned off by a positive bias. A negative bias induces holes on the
tube and makes it conduct whereas a positive bias depletes holes and decreases conductance. This
behaviour is analogous to p-type metal oxide silicon field effect transistor (MOSFET).The
chemical species adsorbed on the tube “dope” the tube to be p-type. By changing the tubes
chemical environment we can change the level of doping.
We see that the conduction of the semiconductor initially rises linearly as the gate voltage is
reduced, conducting better as more holes are added from electrode to nanotube. The conductance
is limited only by barriers as holes traverse the tube. These barriers may be caused by structural
defects in the tube, by atoms adsorbed on the tubes.

2.Nanotube rectifier
It is created by the intersection of two nanotubes such as a metallic tube crossing over a
semiconducting tube. The metallic tube locally depletes the holes in the underlying p-type
semiconductor tube. That is an electron traversing the semiconducting tube must overcome the
barrier created by this metal tube. Biasing one end of the semiconducting tube relative to the
metal tube leads to rectifying behaviour.

Nanotubes as model 1-Dimensional systems

The conductance of some nanotubes are near room temperature are not noticeably affected by the
addition of a few carriers. This behaviour is typical of metals which have a large number of
carriers and have conducting properties that are not significantly affected by the addition of a few
more carriers. The conductances of these metallic nanotubes are much larger than the
semiconducting nanotubes. It implies that electrons can travel for distances of several microns
down a tube before they are scattered. The experiments also showed that electrons can travel for
long distances in nanotubes without being backscattered. Whereas in striking contrast is the
behaviour of metals in which scattering length from lattice vibrations are typically only several
nanometers at room temperature.The main reason for this difference is that an electron in a 1-D
system can only scatter by completely reversing its direction whereas electrons in a 2-D or 3-D
material can scatter by simply changing changing direction through a tiny angle.
Nano-electromechanical devices
By combining nanotube growth on surfaces with microfabrication methods, we will soon be able
to create novel nanotube devices for a variety of new studies and applications. For instance, the
variation of electrical properties of the tubes while undergoing mechanical deformation is
intriguing, and is important for potential applications in which nanotubes form the building
blocks of nanoscale electromechanical devices. The most important observation in this regard is
the result that the conductance of the tube drops sharply as the tube is deformed and is restored
into its original value when the deformation is retracted. This property and several other exclusive
features are applied in many theoretical development of highly sophisticated devices and many
already realized applications such as in MEMS(Micro Electro Mechanical Systems).

Nanotubes for chemical sensors

Nanotubes could be used to detect small concentrations of gas molecules with ultra high
sensitivity at room temperature. Gas sensing is important in environmental monitoring, the
control of chemical processes, and in agriculture and medical applications. Carbon nanotubes are
essentially large “conjugated” systems where electrons are delocalized and hence can conduct.
Chemical sensors made of nanotubes can detect chemicals such as nitrous oxide and ammonia.
Sensors made from single-walled nanotubes have high sensitivity and a fast response at room
temperature (important advantage for gas detection).

Other related applications.

Another breakthrough in the electronic properties of nanotubes was the recent demonstration of
"spin transport" by Kazuhito Tsukagoshi of the RIKEN laboratory in Japan, Bruce Alphenaar of
Hitachi in Cambridge and Hiroki Ago of Cambridge University. Spin transport will be a key
feature in "spintronic" devices that exploit the spin rather than the charge of electrons. Tsukagoshi
and colleagues attached layers of cobalt, a magnetic metal, to opposite ends of a multiwall
nanotube, and showed that the resistance of the nanotube depended on the relative orientation of
the magnetization in the two cobalt layers. For this to happen, the direction of the electron spins
must be maintained as they move along the nanotube, a property that could prove to be very
useful in spintronics.

An Insight into the Exclusive Applications…

..Into the future

Although there is no signs to believe that the nanotube based solid state devices would ever
compete or pose threat to the much developed silicon based industry inspite of having an edge in
the drive towards miniaturization, these cons will almost surely die with the present.

In the predicted futuristic technological revolution involving the nanomachines and the
assemblers-disassemblers brotherhood, silicon based electronics will surely be a misfit and
nanotubes would fit the bill as easily than any other technology developed so far envisaged or at
the far sight.

The following is a bird’s view into the role of these tubes in the nanomachine controlled
technology:-

As the counterpart of the silicon-based electronic devices.

As building blocks of these nanoscale devices.
As the fundamental part of the manipulating mechanism in an assembler or a disassembler
As a part of observing medium such as in electron microscope(The field emission characteristics
of nano tubes are ideal for it)
As part of manipulating and observing mechanisms like an Atomic force Microscope(Na
notubes are the ideal material for the manufacture of the tips of these microscopes.)

Applications and challenges

Industry has begun to notice the unique properties of carbon nanotubes. The first commercial
device that uses multiwall nanotubes may be a lamp that operates on the field-emission principle.
Moreover, the field-emitting characteristics of carbon-nanotube films have attracted serious
interest from the giants of the display industry. Samsung, for example, plans to market a flat-
panel colour display made from multiwall nanotubes within two years. Meanwhile, research at
IBM indicates that nanotubes transistors should be competitive with state-of-the-art silicon
devices. Nanotubes could also be used to store hydrogen to power electric vehicles.

However, many technological hurdles need to be overcome before large-scale applications reach
the marketplace. For example, the techniques that are used to build electronic components from
nanotubes are painstaking and utterly inappropriate for mass production. But perhaps the most
severe limitation is that high-quality nanotubes can only be produced in very limited quantities -
commercial nanotube soot costs 10 times as much as gold!

Although there are many challenges ahead, nanotubes appear destined to open up a host of new
practical applications and improve our understanding of basic physics at the nanometre scale.

Industry and nanotubes

THE numerous extraordinary properties of carbon nanotubes are now well known and it is clear
that nanotubes differ from ordinary molecules and solids in many respects. In fact, nanotubes
have an ambiguous identity: they have reasonably well defined structures - albeit a large variety
of them - like molecules, but their relatively large length and width means that they also resemble
solids. Indeed, nanotubes can be extended to macroscopic lengths and widths to ultimately merge
with bulk graphite, which has a familiar layered structure.

The bond that connects every atom to its three neighbours in the graphite plane is one of the
strongest found in nature. This strength is reflected in the hardness of diamond, although the
graphitic bond is even stronger. This property gives carbon nanotubes exceptional strength. In
stark contrast, the bonding between the graphite planes is very weak, which means that the layers
can easily slide over each other -- a property that makes graphite a good lubricator.

We are only beginning to understand the uniqueness of the electrical properties of carbon
nanotubes, which can be semiconductors or metals depending on the way the graphene sheets are
rolled up into a cylinder. In their metallic form, nanotubes have exceptional current-carrying
capabilities, which may be related to "ballistic transport". This form of electrical transport had
previously only been observed at very low temperatures, but may occur at room temperature in
carbon nanotubes, albeit in a modified form. Meanwhile, the hollow interiors of carbon nanotubes
and the high chemical inertness of the graphite suggest that nanotubes could be used as containers
for gases and chemicals.

Outlook
Carbon nanotubes exhibit a wealth of properties and phenomena. While many of these are
understood, others remain controversial, and nanotubes are sure to remain an exciting area of
condensed-matter physics for years to come. The amazing structural and electronic properties of
nanotubes are not in doubt. Like any new technology, however, nanotubes will have to
outperform current technology to gain a foothold in commercial markets. All these challenges
will keep nanotube researchers busy for a long time to come.

IN THE past ten years or so, the remarkable electrical and mechanical properties of carbon
nanotubes have captured the attention of researchers worldwide. This is largely because these
novel structures could lead to a huge range of potential applications worth billions of dollars.
These range from nanoscale electronics and tools to manipulate individual atoms, to
exceptionally strong materials, flat-panel displays and hydrogen fuel cells.

However, to turn nanoscience into a technology, we need to be able to grow carbon nanotubes
and fabricate nanometre-sized devices on a large scale. We also need a thorough understanding of
the properties of nanotubes. Early efforts to characterize carbon nanotubes were hindered by the
inability to make sufficiently pure samples, and the difficulty in assembling "addressable"
structures from individual nanotubes.

In the future, integrated circuits that have components or wires made from nanotubes will
unavoidably rely on some sort of chemical "self-assembly" in which the chemical properties of
the constituent molecules cause them to form regular structures, or on methods to control the
growth of nanotubes on surfaces. Developing these chemical approaches will undoubtedly benefit
fundamental studies of quasi-one-dimensional systems and their practical applications.