Electrical transport properties and field effect transistors of carbon nanotubes

Abstract

This paper presents a review on our recent work on carbon nanotube field effect transistors, including the development of ohmic contacts, high-κ gate dielectric integration, chemical functionalization for conformal dielectric deposition and pushing the performance limit of nanotube FETs by channel length scaling. Due to the importance of high current operations of electronic devices, we also review the high field electrical transport properties of nanotubes on substrates and in freely suspended forms. Owing to their unique properties originating from their crystalline 1D structure and the strong covalent carbon–carbon bonding configuration, carbon nanotubes are highly promising as building blocks for future electronics. They are found to perform favorably in terms of ON-state current density as compared to the existing silicon technology, owing to their superb electron transport properties and compatibility with high-κ gate dielectrics. Future directions and challenges for carbon nanotube-based electronics are also discussed.