Defect-Free Carbon Nanotube Coils.

Carbon nanotubes are promising building blocks for various nanoelectronic components. A highly desirable geometry for such applications is a coil. However, coiled nanotube structures reported so far were inherently defective or had no free ends accessible for contacting. Here we demonstrate the spontaneous self-coiling of single-wall carbon nanotubes into defect-free coils of up to more than 70 turns with identical diameter and chirality, and free ends. We characterize the structure, formation mechanism, and electrical properties of these coils by different microscopies, molecular dynamics simulations, Raman spectroscopy, and electrical and magnetic measurements. The coils are highly conductive, as expected for defect-free carbon nanotubes, but adjacent nanotube segments in the coil are more highly coupled than in regular bundles of single-wall carbon nanotubes, owing to their perfect crystal momentum matching, which enables tunneling between the turns. Although this behavior does not yet enable the performance of these nanotube coils as inductive devices, it does point a clear path for their realization. Hence, this study represents a major step toward the production of many different nanotube coil devices, including inductors, electromagnets, transformers, and dynamos.

Charge transfer between carbon nanotubes on surfaces.

The charge transfer between neighboring single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) on a silicon oxide surface was investigated as a function of both the SWNT nature (metallic or semiconducting) and the anode/cathode distance using scanning probe techniques. Two main mechanisms were observed: a direct electron tunneling described by the typical Fowler-Nordheim model, and indirect electron transfer (hopping) mediated by functional groups on the supporting surface. Both mechanisms depend on the SWNT nature and on the anode/cathode separation: direct electron tunneling dominates the charge transfer process for metallic SWNTs, especially for large distances, while both mechanisms compete with each other for semiconducting SWNTs, prevailing one over the other depending on the anode/cathode separation. These mechanisms may significantly influence the design and operation of SWNT-based electronic devices.

Strain Discontinuity, Avalanche, and Memory in Carbon Nanotube Serpentine Systems.

This work addresses the problem of how a nano-object adheres to a supporting media. The case of study are the serpentine-like structures of single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) grown on vicinal crystalline quartz. We develop in situ nanomanipulation and confocal Raman spectroscopy in such systems, and to explain the results, we propose a dynamical equation in which static friction is treated phenomenologically and implemented as cutoff for velocities, via Heaviside step function and an adhesion force tensor. We demonstrate that the strain profiles observed along the SWNTs are due to anisotropic adhesion, adhesion discontinuities, strain avalanches, and memory effects. The equation is general enough to make predictions for various one- and two-dimensional nanosystems adhered to a supporting media.

Modulating the electronic properties along carbon nanotubes via tube-substrate interaction.

We study single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) deposited on quartz. Their Raman spectrum depends on the tube-substrate morphology, and in some cases, it shows that the same SWNT-on-quartz system exhibits a mixture of semiconductor and metal behavior, depending on the orientation between the tube and the substrate. We also address the problem using electric force microscopy and ab initio calculations, both showing that the electronic properties along a single SWNT are being modulated via tube-substrate interaction.