Electrical conduction and transmission coefficients of suspended multiwalled carbon nanotubes

Room temperature electrical transport measurements have been made on suspended arc-discharge, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) coated with a thin polymer layer using high precision manipulators within a scanning electron microscope. It is shown that the conductance–voltage characteristics of the MWNTs are symmetric with respect to voltage and that the conductance improves with multiple cycling of the voltage. Estimates of the transmission coefficients associated with the semiconducting sub-bands and contacts of the MWNTs have also been made.