Tunable Resistance of a Carbon Nanotube-Graphite Interface
S. Paulson,1*
A. Helser,2
M.
Buongiorno Nardelli,3
R. M. Taylor II,21
M. Falvo,1
R. Superfine,1
S. Washburn1
The transfer of electrons from one material to another is usually
described in terms of energy conservation, with no attention being paid
to momentum conservation. Here we present results on the junction
resistance between a carbon nanotube and a graphite substrate and show
that details of momentum conservation also can change the contact
resistance. By changing the angular alignment of the atomic lattices,
we found that contact resistance varied by more than an order of
magnitude in a controlled and reproducible fashion, indicating that
momentum conservation, in addition to energy conservation, can dictate
the junction resistance in graphene systems such as carbon nanotube
junctions and devices.
1 Department of Physics and Astronomy,
2 Department of Computer Science, University of
North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
3 Department of Physics, North Carolina State
University, Raleigh, NC 27695-8202, USA.
*
Present address: Department of Physics and Center for Nonlinear
and Complex Systems, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
falvo{at}physics.unc.edu
