Y-shaped Nanotubes Can Act as Transistors

The movement of electrons through the arms of the carbon nanotubes Y-junction can be finely controlled, or gated, by applying a voltage to the stem. The system is similar to the source, gate, and drain of a conventional transistor.

A team of Jacobs School materials scientists reported in the September 2005 issue of Nature Materials that specially synthesized Y-shaped nanotubes exhibit electronic properties that are improved over those of conventional MOS (metal oxide semiconductor) transistors.

"This is the first time that a transistor-like structure has been fabricated using a branched carbon nanotube," says MAE professor Prabhakar Bandaru, who collaborated on the project with professor Sungho Jin, graduate student Chiara Daraio and Clemson physicist Apparao M. Rao."This discovery represents a new way of thinking about nano-electronic devices."

The nanotubes described by Bandaru's team are only a few tens of nanometers thick. "The small size and dramatic switching behavior of these nanotubes makes them candidates for a new class of transistor," adds Bandaru.