Electrical cutting and nicking of carbon nanotubes using an atomic force microscope

An atomic force microscope (AFM) has been used to modify the electrical properties of carbon nanotube devices. By applying voltage pulses from a metal-coated AFM tip, electrical breaks (“cuts”) or tunneling barriers (“nicks”) can be created at any point along a tube. These methods are applied to make single tube devices by cutting uninteresting nanotubes or create small quantum dots with large charging energies by placing two tunneling barriers 50 nm apart along a nanotube.