College of Natural Science
 
Outstanding Alumni Award

for 2001 to

Phaedon Avouris

 

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(Abstract of Lecture presented by Dr. Avouris at 3:30 p.m., Monday, November 19, 2001, in Room 136 Chemistry)

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are a new class of macromolecules with unique mechanical, thermal and electrical properties. In particular, depending on their chirality, the CNTs can be metals or semiconductors. These properties make the CNTs promising candidates for a future carbon- based nanoelectronic technology. First, I will discuss the electronic structure of these one-dimensional systems, and the influence of this structure and reduced dimensionality on their electrical conductance. Then, I will focus on field-effect transistors that use a single semiconducting CNT as their channel. I will start with hole conducting (p-type) single CNT transistors; following this I will describe how ambipolar nanotube devices that we have produced already are as good or better than the corresponding state-of-the-art silicon devices. By having both n- and p-CNT transistors, recently we were able to form simple integrated molecular circuits. This capability is illustrated by fabricating the first inter-molecular and intra- molecular logic gates. In the latter case, the logic function is encoded along the length of a molecule. Finally, I will discuss the properties, modification, and device uses of composite nanotube systems, i.e. multi-walled nanotubes and bundles of single-walled nanotubes.