We report a combined electronic transport and structural characterizationstudy of small carbon nanotube bundles in field-effect transistors (FET). Theatomic structures of the bundles are determined by electron diffraction usingan observation window built in the FET. The single-walled nanotube bundlesexhibit electrical transport characteristics sensitively dependent on thestructure of individual tubes, their arrangements in the bundle, deformationdue to intertube interaction, and the orientation with respect to the gateelectric field. Our ab-initio simulation shows that tube deformation in thebundle induces a bandgap opening in a metallic tube. These results show theimportance of intertube interaction in electrical transport of bundlednanotubes.
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