An Effective Switching-Off Mechanism for High-Performance Carbon Nanotube Field-Effect Transistors

We report an effective switching-off mechanism for the fabrication of high-performance carbon nanotube field-effect transistors (CNTFETs) formed by ultra-purified single-walled carbon nano-tubes (SWCNTs) with p-type Sb(2)Te(3) semiconductor as the source and drain contact material and a narrow platinum gate entirely defined inside the source and drain contact region. CNTFETs show drain-source current (I(Ds)) as a function of drain-source voltage (V(DS)) and gate voltage (V(GS)) of similar characteristics to a p-channel junction field-effect transistor (JFET). CNTFETs are normally on, and they can be effectively switched off with applying a positive gate voltage. By localizing the gate action primarily on the SWCNTs, away from the source and drain contacts, we could clearly interpret the beneficial effect of semiconducting contacts on the performance of CNTFETs. The proposed device is novel and could be a solution to the switching-off problem in CNTFETs.