Study on electronic properties of single-wall carbon nanotubes

Single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have been synthesized and purified. U sing a water colloid, SWCNTs have been assembled at the end of a tungsten t ip that can be used as the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) tip, and ato mic resolution images of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) and gold film surfaces have been obtained. The field emission properties of SWCNTs have also been studied exploiting the field emission microscopy (FEM). A fi eld emission pattern of an SWCNT at atomic resolution was observed, which w as consistent with the calculated results of the (9,9) armchair SWCNT. Elec tron transport properties along SWCNTs were investigated, negative differen tial conductance was observed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights re served.