Substrate-dependent electrical transport in individual single-walled carbon nanotubes grown across SiO2 and hexagonal boron nitride

Abstract

The electronic transport properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are strongly affected by their surrounding environment, making the underlying substrate a critical factor for device performance. Here, we demonstrate enhanced carrier transport of individual single-walled CNTs on hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) by directly comparing CNT channels on SiO2 and hBN within the same nanotube. This within-tube comparison removes tube-to-tube variability in chirality, diameter, and defect density, allowing the intrinsic substrate effect to be evaluated more reliably. The CNTs were synthesized using gas flow-directed growth, which yields long, well-aligned CNTs without transfer processes, allowing a single nanotube to extend across different substrate regions. Multichannel field-effect transistors fabricated along an individual CNT exhibit clear ambipolar characteristics. CNT channels on hBN consistently exhibit higher field-effect mobility than those on SiO2. In contrast, temperature-dependent transport near the charge neutrality point exhibits thermally activated behavior with similar activation energies (15–20 meV) on both substrates, indicating that the intrinsic small bandgap of CNTs is largely unaffected by the substrate. These results provide direct evidence that hBN enhances low-field carrier transport in CNTs and establish a foundation for the fabrication of high-performance electronics based on hBN-supported CNTs.