In-situ nanomechanical-electrical testing of one-dimensional materials

One-dimensional nanomaterials including nanotubes are building blocks for constructing various complex nanodevices. Boron nitride (BN) nanotubes with structure similar to carbon nanotube are known to be among the strongest insulators in the world. In this work, deformation of an individual BN nanotube is performed inside a high-resolution transmission electron microscope (TEM) using a piezo-driven atomic force microscope (AFM) and scanning tunneling microscope (STM)–TEM holder. The electrical and mechanical properties of individual BN nanotubes are obtained from the experimentally recorded I-V and force-displacement curves