title: Superior Current Carrying Capacity of Boron Nitride Encapsulated Carbon Nanotubes with Zero-Dimensional Contacts.
abstract: We report fabrication and characterization of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN)-encapsulated carbon nanotube (CNT) field effect transistors, which are coupled to electrical leads via zero-dimensional contacts. Device quality is attested by the ohmic contacts and observation of Coulomb blockade with a single periodicity in small bandgap semiconducing nanotubes. Surprisingly, hBN-encapsulated CNT devices demonstrate significantly enhanced current carrying capacity; a single-walled CNT can sustain >180 μA current or, equivalently, a current density of ∼2 × 10(10) A/cm(2), which is a factor of 6-7 higher than devices supported on SiO2 substrates. Such dramatic enhancement of current carrying capacity arises from the high thermal conductivity of hBN and lower hBN-CNT interfacial thermal resistance and has implications for carbon electronic applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California , Riverside, California 92521, United States.
authors.forename: Jhao-Wun
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California , Riverside, California 92521, United States.
authors.forename: Cheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California , Riverside, California 92521, United States.
authors.forename: Son
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tran
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California , Riverside, California 92521, United States.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Materials Science , 1-1 Namiki Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan.
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Materials Science , 1-1 Namiki Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Taniguchi
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California , Riverside, California 92521, United States.
authors.forename: Chun Ning
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California , Riverside, California 92521, United States.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bockrath
keywords: Current carrying capacity; carbon nanotube; hBN encapsulation