Electrical Transport Studies on Functionalized Carbon Nanotube Devices and Thin-Films

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The carbon nanotube is among a short list of nanoelectronic materials that have fuelled an unprecedented level of research activity in academic, government and industrial labs around the world. The work is mainly motivated by the search for new nanodevice paradigms for electronics. This research program takes place in this context and aims to advance further the physics and chemistry of the single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT). Three fast growing areas of nanotube research will be researched: 1) Optical conductivity in the Mid-infrared (Mid-IR); 2) Band-to-band tunnelling devices for making mono-kinetic electron sources; 3) Chemical sensors for resolving single catalytic reaction events using functionalized SWNT field-effect devices. For these projects, new nanodevices will be fabricated using processes developed in the lab of the applicant combined with other techniques borrowed from microelectronics.Objective 1 aims at understanding and controlling the huge Mid-IR activity of nanotube thin-films. It targets specific projects about the presence of Fano resonances in this spectral region due to a quantum interference between the continuum intra-band absorption band and discrete phonon states. This work will explore the influence of lattice disorder induced by covalent bonding and will search for ways to modulate the continuum band and amplify the Fano bands, which is of potential interest for THz electronics and communication. Objective 2 is to test the principles of band-pass energy filtering of carriers using band-to-band tunnelling in individual nanotube devices. We will verify the hypothesis that an effective cooling of the electron distribution can be achieved in a dual gate nanotube device. This part of the research targets deliverables in the long term, such as logic devices and light sources operating with lower energy dissipation, as well as new electron field-emission sources capable of producing at room temperature intense beams of mono-kinetic electrons, with potentially high interest for advancing spectrometers and microscopes. Objective 3 concerns a continuing investigation on the properties of covalently functionalized SWNTs for molecular sensors. Different chemical groups will be used as covalent bridges to sense active catalytic sites attached to the SWNT in a transistor configuration. The deliverable is a detector of single catalytic events to study heterogeneous catalysis. These projects are multidisciplinary and blend concepts borrowed from surface and interface chemistry, materials, nanoscience, and solid-state chemistry and physics. The program is highly innovative and will serve as the main training platform to develop highly qualified personal for the area of electronic materials and of device principles and fabrication.