The Study of Electro-mechanical Phenomena in Single CNTs in the Cold Field Emission Scheme Using Nanomanipulation

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are one of the most interesting nanotechnological materials with many unique physical and functional properties. The uniqueness of many properties is manifested both in macro-samples containing CNTs and at the nano-level, in the case of single nanotubes. One of outstanding properties of CNTs, which manifest themselves both in macro-samples and in the case of single CNTs, is cold field emission. Another interesting property of CNTs is luminescence. By themselves, single nanotubes have unique mechanical, electrical, and electromechanical properties, and a single CNT itself can be considered as a subminiature nanó-electromechanical system (NEMS). Also, electromechanical phenomena and luminescence can occur in CNTs under conditions of cold field emission. The paper reports on the observation of electromechanical vibrations and optical emission from single carbon nanotubes in the cold field emission mode from a single nanotube.