Controllable electrical breakdown of multiwall carbon nanotubes

Abstract

Controllable electrical breakdown of multiwall nanotubes (MWNTs) is studied utilizing the atomic force microscopy (AFM). Electrical breakdown has been known as the way to fundamentally understand the electrical properties of nanotubes and an approach to develop MWNT based transistors and sensors. Normally, electrical breakdown was known to be happened in the center of MWNT because of the thermal accumulation. However, considering the effect of thermal dissipation, the electrical breakdown could be mechanically controlled by an additional heat sink, which could be the substrate of MWNT device. Therefore, the electrical breakdown process is controllable through controlling Joule heating and thermal dissipation. In this research, we study the crucial factors that affect the electrical breakdown. The AFM based nano robot is used to measure the conductance distribution, and manipulate the three dimensional structure of MWNT in order to change the position of heat sink to control the location where electrical breakdown happened. The controllable electrical breakdown is an alternative approach for conducting bandgap engineering in nanodevice and fabricating high performance nano sensors and transistors.