Measurement of contact resistance of multiwall carbon nanotubes by electrical contact using a focused ion beam

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have found many potential applications but using CNTs as building blocks for nanoelectronics is still challenging. Various micro- and nanofabrication techniques including focused ion beam (FIB) are therefore being developed for combining CNTs into a nanodevice or to help assess the electrical properties of integrated CNTs. In this paper, multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) are assembled between a pair of gold (Au) electrodes by dielectrophoresis (DEP). Contact resistances of MWNT-Au and, in particular, MWNT-MWNT are measured with the help of making electrical connections between a MWNT and electrodes by FIB induced tungsten deposition. A method for resistance calculation is presented which considers the contact length of MWNTs. Under the conditions of this research, measured conducting resistances of MWNTs were from 1–10 kΩ/μm and the contact resistance of MWNTs with Au was around 100 kΩ μm. The contact resistance between MWNTs varied depending on contact configurations and could be as low as 50 KΩ. The effect of FIB parameters on the measurement results is discussed.