Dimensionality and correlation effects in coupled carbon nanotube arrays.

Abstract

Coupled one-dimensional (1D) conductor array has been proposed as a promising platform to explore the electronic correlation phenomena in higher dimensions and rich electronic phases; however, these architectures have been challenging to configure over the past few decades. Well-aligned semiconducting carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been demonstrated as a promising channel material to construct ultra-scaled transistors for future integrated circuits, but their transport behaviors, especially the tunable dimensionality and electron-electron (e-e) interactions, remain elusive and are needed to explore the correlated electronic phases. Here, we experimentally realize a dimensional transition with controlled electronic correlationsin situusing coupled quantum wire arrays that contain well-aligned CNTs in a two-dimensional (2D) film. The tunability of the CNT arrays through a high-efficient top gate allows us to construct the phase diagram of a coupled 1D electron system. We successfully extend Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid (LL) to a 2D system and observe a gate-tunable e-e interaction, with a universal scaling behavior, as the start of the phase diagram. Consequently, we demonstrate that the transport behavior of the CNT arrays evolves from the LL to the Fermi liquid or Coulomb blockade regime by varying thee-einteraction and temperature. As a result, the electronic phase diagram is obtained for dimensional transitions across three dimensionalities, which provides an opportunity to explore low-dimensional electronic phase transitions with engineered artificial arrays of 1D wires and deepens understanding of transport behavior of the CNT array for electronics applications.