Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) can be described as a roll-up of graphene sheet into a hollow cylinder with diameters in a nanometer range and lengths varying from tens of nanometers to centimeters. Owing to its roll-up chirality, SWNTs exhibit either metallic or semiconducting behaviour. The ballistic electron transport in semiconducting SWNTs manifests superior field-effect behavior and its intrinsic carrier mobility of about 100,000 cm7V-s due to its nearly one-dimensional and defect-free electronic structure makes it one of most promising candidates for electronic applications. However, precise positioning and alignment of SWNTs, inconsistency of its electrical properties due to variations of its chirality and diameter in SWNTs assembly, and the integration of single-tube devices into a circuit as well as scalability of its fabrication process are remaining major technical hurdles for realizing its electronic applications.

183 p.