Simulating the Electrical Properties of Random Carbon Nanotube Networks Using a Simple Model Based on Percolation Theory

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been subject to extensive research towards their possible applications in the world of nanoelectronics. The interest in carbon nanotubes originates from their unique variety of properties useful in nanoelectronic devices. One key feature of carbon nanotubes is that the chiral angle at which they are rolled determines whether the tube is metallic or semiconducting. Of main interest to this project are devices containing a thin film of randomly arranged carbon nanotubes, known as carbon nanotube networks. The presence of semiconducting tubes in a CNT network can lead to a switching effect when the film is electro-statically gated, while the presence of a certain amount of metallic tubes increases carrier mobility and overall conductance of the network. These qualities of thin film CNT networks contribute to their potential to serve as high performance field effect transistors (FETs)