Ten- to 50-nm-long quasi-ballistic carbon nanotube devices obtained without complex lithography

Abstract

A simple method combining photolithography and shadow (or angle) evaporation is developed to fabricate single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) devices with tube lengths of ≈10-50 nm between metal contacts. Large numbers of such short devices are obtained without the need of complex tools such as electron beam lithography. Metallic SWCNTs with lengths of ≈10 nm, near the mean free path of lop = 15 nm for optical phonon scattering, exhibit nearly ballistic transport at high biases and can carry unprecedented 100-μA currents per tube. Semiconducting SWCNT field-effect transistors with ≈50-nm channel lengths are routinely produced to achieve quasi-ballistic operations for molecular transistors. The results demonstrate highly length-scaled and high-performance interconnects and transistors realized with SWCNTs.