Abstract
We observe current rectification in a molecular diode consisting of a semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotube and an impurity. One-half of the nanotube has no impurity, and it has a current-voltage characteristic of a typical semiconducting nanotube. The other half of the nanotube has the impurity on it, and its characteristic is that of a diode. Current in the nanotube diode is carried by holes transported through the molecule's one-dimensional subbands. At 77 K we observe a stepwise increase in the current through the diode as a function of gate voltage, showing that we can control the number of occupied one-dimensional subbands through electrostatic doping.
- Received 3 June 1999
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.83.3274
©1999 American Physical Society