The discovery of multiwalled carbon nanotubes(CNTs) in 1991 and the subsequent discovery of single-walled CNTs in 1993 have led to a worldwide excitement to explore their fundamental properties and potential device applications. A sing- walled CNT is structurally a sheet of graphene rolled into a seamless tube, which possesses a diameter of the order of a nanometer but a length thousands of times greater. The large aspect ratio and small cross section size make it nearly an ideal, quasi-one-dimensionalsystem, which has provided a concrete context for chemists, physicists,andengineersto collaborativelyworktogetherin the?eld ofnanoscience and nanotechnology. As a result of such efforts in the last two decades, superior electrical, optical, and mechanical properties of CNTs have been theoretically p- dicted and experimentally demonstrated. The unique material properties of CNTs have made it interesting for a variety of applications. For example, depending on the orientation of its graphene lattice relative to the nanotube axis, the CNT can be either metallic or semiconducting. This property makes the material interesting for developing not only nanoscale semiconductor devices but also a new interc- nect technologyto competewith the state-of-theart copperinterconnecttechnology. The property has also imposed yet-solved challenges in the ?eld. For example, one of the major challenges that holds CNTs back from electronic application is how to produce pure all-semiconducting CNTs, based on which a device that can be effectively turned off can be built.

Presents the latest technology in welding carbon nanotubes with metal electrodes Opens the field for carbon nanotube devices Reference work for researchers and electrical engineers alike

Autorentext

Changxin Chen received a Ph.D. degree in Microelectronics and Solid-State Electronics from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Research Institute of Micro/Nano Science and Technology in Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His research interests cover carbon nanotube electronics and optoelectronics, novel semiconductor or nano devices, and nanofabrication and nanoassembly, etc. He has authored or coauthored more than 30 papers in scientific journals and is the holder of several patents in the micro/nano electronics area.

Yafei Zhang is the Chair Professor of Nanomaterials and Nanoelectronics, Research Institute of Micro/Nanometer Science & Technology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Prof. Zhang received his B.Sc. in 1982, M.S. in 1986 and PhD degree in 1994 from the Lanzhou University of China, all in Condensed Physics. He was a Research Scientist, and Visiting Professor at the Centre of Super-Diamond and Advanced Films, City University of Hong Kong from 1996 to 1998, a Senior Research Scientist, in the Japan National Institute for Research in Inorganic Materials from 1998 to 2001. He joined the Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2001 and established a research team in the field of nanomaterials and nanoelectronics. His research interests including nanoelectronic devices constructed by nanomaterial arrangement, single-walled carbon nanotubes and related sensors, nanowire-based single electronic devices, multibarrier electron tuning devices, SiC nanowhiskers and related functional devices, Si nanowires and photocatalytic films of TiO2. He has authored or coauthored over 250 papers and 36 patents.

Zusammenfassung

This book introduces a novel ultrasonic nanowelding technology of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to metal electrodes and its application for CNT devices. It will be of interest to graduates, scientists and engineers working on CNTs and related topics.

Inhalt
Carbon Nanotube Structure, Electronic, and Transport Properties.- Synthesis and Purification of Carbon Nanotubes.- Directed Alignment of Carbon Nanotubes.- Ultrasonic Nanowelding Technology Between Carbon Nanotubes and Metal Electrodes.- Nanowelded Multichannel Carbon-Nanotube Field-Effect Transistors (MC-CNTFETs).- Carbon-Nanotube Solar Photovoltaic Microcells with Nanowelded Contacts.