Metal–insulator–semiconductor electrostatics of carbon nanotubes

Carbon nanotube metal–insulator–semiconductor capacitors are examined theoretically. For the densely packed array of nanotubes on a planar insulator, the capacitance per tube is reduced due to the screening of the charge on the gate plane by the neighboring nanotubes. In contrast to the silicon metal–oxide–semiconductor capacitors, the calculated C – V curves reflect the local peaks of the one-dimensional density-of-states in the nanotube. This effect provides the possibility to use C – V measurements to diagnose the electronic structures of nanotubes. Results of the electrostatic calculations can also be applied to estimate the upper-limit on-current of carbon nanotube field-effect transistors. © 2002 American Institute of Physics. @DOI: 10.1063/1.1502188#