Interface study of metal electrode and semiconducting carbon nanotubes: effects of electrode atomic species

Presented herein are the first principle calculations of the transport properties of semiconducting carbon nanotubes (CNT's), coupled to metallic electrodes. Our preliminary results indicate that for simple contact geometries, the Fermi level lies roughly in the middle of the gap for palladium-contacted CNT's, while it is pinned at the bottom of the conduction band for gold-contacted CNT's. This is interesting because both of these metals possess similar work functions. Additionally the charge transfer at the interface is larger in palladium contacted CNT, compared with gold contacted case.