IBM moves carbon nanotubes closer to semi use
A team of researchers at IBM Corporation has reported that they have measured the distribution of electrical charges in tubes of carbon measuring smaller than 2-nm in diameter, which is 50,000 times thinner than a human hair. This is a development, which moves carbon nanotubes closer to implementation in semiconductor chips.
Carbon in a nanotube structure is a material that shows promise as a building block for smaller, faster and lower power computer chips compared to today's conventional silicon transistors.
IBM’s technique relies on the interactions between electrons and phonons. Phonons are the atomic vibrations that occur inside material, which can determine the material's thermal and electrical conductivity, whereas electrons carry and produce the current: both are important features of materials that can be used to carry electrical signals and perform computations.
This development is important since the interaction between electrons and phonons can release heat and impede electrical flow inside computer chips and by understanding the interaction of electrons and phonons in carbon nanotubes, the researchers have a better way to measure their suitability as wires and semiconductors inside of future computer chips.
However, in order to make carbon nanotubes useable in building logic circuitry, scientists are pushing to demonstrate their high speed, high packing density and low power consumption capabilities as well as the ability to make them viable for potential mass production.
To allow the fabrication of more reliable transistors, a better understanding of how the local environment affects the electrical charge of a carbon nanotube is needed, which is why the ability to measure local electron density changes in a nanotube is essential.
