Carbon nanotube intramolecular junctions

The ultimate device miniaturization would be to use individual molecules as functional devices. Single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are promising candidates for achieving this: depending on their diameter and chirality, they are either one-dimensional metals or semiconductors1,2. Single-electron transistors employing metallic nanotubes3,4 and field-effect transistors employing semiconducting nanotubes5 have been demonstrated. Intramolecular devices have also been proposed which should display a range of other device functions6,7,8,9,10,11. For example, by introducing a pentagon and a heptagon into the hexagonal carbon lattice, two tube segments with different atomic and electronic structures can be seamlessly fused together to create intramolecular metal–metal, metal–semiconductor, or semiconductor–semiconductor junctions. Here we report electrical transport measurements on SWNTs with intramolecular junctions. We find that a metal–semiconductor junction behaves like a rectifying diode with nonlinear transport characteristics that are strongly asymmetric with respect to bias polarity. In the case of a metal–metal junction, the conductance appears to be strongly suppressed and it displays a power-law dependence on temperatures and applied voltage, consistent with tunnelling between the ends of two Luttinger liquids. Our results emphasize the need to consider screening and electron interactions when designing and modelling molecular devices. Realization of carbon-based molecular electronics will require future efforts in the controlled production of these intramolecular nanotube junctions.