Electronic effects of defects in one-dimensional channels

摘要

As electronic devices shrink to the one-dimensional limit, unusual device physics can result, even at room temperature. Nanoscale conductors like single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are particularly useful tools for experimentally investigating these effects. Our characterization of point defects in SWNTs has focused on these electronic consequences. A single scattering site in an otherwise quasi-ballistic SWNT introduces resistance, transconductance, and chemical sensitivity, and here we investigate these contributions using a combination of transport and scanning probe techniques. The transport measurements determine the two-terminal contributions over a wide range of bias, temperature, and environmental conditions, while the scanning probe work provides complementary confirmation that the effects originate at a particular site along the conduction path in a SWNT. Together, the combination proves that single point defects behave like scattering barriers having Poole-Frenkel transport characteristics. The Poole-Frenkel barriers have heights of 10 - 30 meV and gate-dependent widths that grow as large as 1 μm due to the uniquely poor screening in one dimension. Poole-Frenkel characteristics suggest that the barriers contain at least one localized electronic state, and that this state primarily contributes to conduction under high bias or high temperature conditions. Because these localized states vary from one device to another, we hypothesize that each might be unique to a particular defect's chemical type.