Four-probe charge transport measurements on individual vertically aligned carbon nanofibers

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Copyright (2005) American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics.

Lan Zhang, Derek Austin, Vladimir I. Merkulov, Anatoli V. Meleshko,

and Kate L. Klein

Molecular-Scale Engineering and Nanoscale Technologies Research Group, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P.O. Box 2008, MS 6006, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831

Michael A. Guillorn

Cornell Nanofabrication Facility, 250 Duffield Hall, Ithaca, New York 14853

Douglas H. Lowndes

Condensed Matter Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831

Michael L. Simpson

Molecular-Scale Engineering and Nanoscale Technologies Research Group, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P.O. Box 2008, MS 6006, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831

(Received 11 December 2003; accepted 26 March 2004; published online 3 May 2004)

We report four-probe I–V measurements on individual vertically aligned carbon nanofibers (VACNFs). These measurements were enabled by the fabrication of multiple Ti/Au ohmic contacts on individual fibers that exhibited resistance of only a few kilohms. These measurements demonstrate that VACNFs exhibit linear I–V behavior at room temperature, with a resistivity of approximately 4.2×10^–3 cm. Our measurements are consistent with a dominant transport mechanism of electrons traveling through intergraphitic planes in the VACNFs. ©2004 American Institute of Physics.