Electrical Nanoprobing of Semiconducting Carbon Nanotubes using an Atomic Force Microscope

Y. Yaish, J. -Y. Park, S. Rosenblatt, V. Sazonova, M. Brink, P. L. McEuen

Published 2003-05-06, updated 2003-11-21Version 3

We use an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) tip to locally probe the electronic properties of semiconducting carbon nanotube transistors. A gold-coated AFM tip serves as a voltage or current probe in three-probe measurement setup. Using the tip as a movable current probe, we investigate the scaling of the device properties with channel length. Using the tip as a voltage probe, we study the properties of the contacts. We find that Au makes an excellent contact in the p-region, with no Schottky barrier. In the n-region large contact resistances were found which dominate the transport properties.