Percolation in random networks of heterogeneous nanotubes

The electrical performance of random carbon nanotube network transistors is found by Monte Carlo simulation to strongly depend on the nature of the conduction path percolating the network. When the network is percolated only by semiconducting nanotube pathways (OSPs), the transistors can directly achieve both high on current and large on/off current ratio. Based on percolation theory, the present work predicts that there exist specific nanotube coverage domains within which OSP has the highest probability and becomes predominant. Simulation results show that the coverage domains depend on the network dimension, nanotube length, and the fraction of metallic nanotubes.