Electrical properties of single-walled carbon nanotube films

We first demonstrate efficient patterning of conductive and transparent single-walled carbon nanotube films by photo- and e-beam lithography and subsequent reactive ion etching in an ICP-RIE system. We then study the geometry dependent transport characteristics of the film patterned into four point probe structures. We find that resistivity is independent of film length, while increasing significantly when width and thickness of the film shrink. We explain this behavior by a geometrical argument. The ability to pattern the film could enable the integration of nanotube films into electronic devices; however, the strong resistivity scaling should be carefully taken into account when designing submicron devices.