Thin film transistors of single-walled carbon nanotubes grown directly on glass substrates

Abstract

We report a transistor of randomly networked single-walled carbon nanotubes on a glass substrate. The carbon nanotube networks acting as the active components of the thin film transistor were selectively formed on the transistor channel areas that were previously patterned with catalysts to avoid the etching process for isolating nanotubes. The nanotube density was more than 50 mu m(-2), which is much larger than the percolation threshold. Transistors were successfully fabricated with a conducting and transparent ZnO for the back-side gate and the top-side gate. This allows the transparent electronics or suggests thin film applications of nanotubes for future opto-electronics.