Converting metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes into semiconductors by boron/nitrogen co-doping

Abstract

A study has reported the fabrication of field-effect transistor (FET) devices using the as-prepared BCN-SWNT (single-walled carbon nanotubes). Electronic transport measurements elucidate that the BCN-SWNTs are purely semiconducting, while ab initio calculations indicate that the electronic structure of a C-SWNT evolves from a metallic to semiconducting as a result of B/N (boron/nitrogen) co-doping. A plasma-assisted hot-filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) method is applied to grow B/N co-doped SWNTs, so the possibility of selective etching of a gas-phase plasma hydro-carbonation reaction on metallic nanotubes has to be recovered. It was found that all atomic structures of the various SWNTs considered were fully relaxed to an accuracy where the total energy difference between two ionic steps was smaller than 1meV. The results of the experimentation also show that the boron or nitride dopants are at the same concentration in the range from 3 to 8%.