Transport and TEM on the same individual carbon nanotubes,and peapods

For the first time, full transistor characteristics - both output and transfer characteristics - in field-effect transistor configuration have been recorded and TEM investigations have been performed on the same individual nanotubes and metallofullerene peapods. Usual approaches for combining transport and TEM on the same nanotube only allow for measuring the current voltage characteristics, but no gate dependence can be acquired. Applying our new method of underetching a Si/SiO2 substrate from the edge of a chip after the transport measurements, we can additionally get the transfer characteristics I-sd(V-g), i.e. the gate response of the current, which provides crucial information about the electronic properties of the system investigated. After the transport measurements and the etching process the samples can be viewed in the TEM, which enables us to check, whether a contacted nanotube is really a single tube or a thin bundle and whether a tube is filled with fullerenes indeed. Gaining this additional structural information by TEM can significantly help to interpret electrical transport data correctly.