Olli Herranen

Femtosecond four-wave-mixing spectroscopy of suspended individual semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes.

Femtosecond four-wave-mixing (FWM) experiments of individual suspended semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are presented. The chiral indices of the tubes were determined by electron diffraction as (28,14) and (24,14) having diameters of 2.90 and 2.61 nm, respectively. The diameter and semiconducting character of the tubes were additionally confirmed by resonance Raman measurements. The FWM signal showed electronic response from the SWCNTs. The results demonstrate that ultrafast dynamics of individual SWCNTs can be studied by FWM spectroscopies.

Measurement of optical second-harmonic generation from an individual single-walled carbon nanotube

We show that optical second-harmonic generation (SHG) can be observed from individual single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and, furthermore, allows imaging of individual tubes. Detailed analysis of our results suggests that the structural non-centrosymmetry, as required for SHG, arises from the non-zero chiral angle of the SWCNT. SHG thus has potential as a fast, non-destructive and simple method for imaging of individual nanomolecules and for probing their chiral properties.

Ultra-low noise multiwalled carbon nanotube transistors

We report an experimental noise study of intermediate sized quasi ballistic semiconducting multiwalled carbon nanotube (IS-MWCNT) devices. The noise is two orders of magnitude lower than in singlewalled nanotubes (SWCNTs) and has no length dependence within the studied range. In these channel limited devices with small or negligible Schottky barriers the noise is shown to originate from the intrinsic potential fluctuations of charge traps in the gate dielectric. The gate dependence of normalized noise can be explained better using ballistic the charge noise model rather than diffusive McWhorter’s model. The results indicate that the noise properties of IS-MWCNTs are closer to SWCNTs than thicker MWCNTs. These results can be utilized in future to analyze noise in other purely ballistic nanoscale devices.

Linear current fluctuations in the power-law region of metallic carbon nanotubes

We study low frequency noise in a non-Ohmic region of metallic single walled and multiwalled carbon nanotubes. The generalized relative noise appear to be independent of applied bias in the power-law regime of the tubes and in agreement with theoretical predictions. Beyond the power law regime the suppression of conductance due to scattering with optical phonons is accompanied by a reduction of relative noise by an order of magnitude. Mobility fluctuations in the tubes due to optical phonon scattering cause the unexpected reduction in the relative noise magnitude which is modeled using a modified mobility fluctuation picture. The findings have important implications for metallic nanotubes being used as interconnects in nanoelectronic devices.

Background-Free Second-Harmonic Generation Microscopy of Individual Carbon Nanotubes

We use polarized second-harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy to investigate pristine air-suspended carbon nanotubes (CNT). We show that SHG originates from CNT chirality, allowing also different response for the two circular polarizations of fundamental light.

Multimodal nonlinear imaging of suspended carbon nanotubes using circular polarizations

In this work, multimodal nonlinear microscopy of suspended CNTs using circular polarizations (CP) was reported. Significant variations in the SHG and THG signals of the CNTs between left hand circular polarization (LHCP) and right hand circular polarization (RHCP) were observed. The variations in the nonlinear signals can be associated to the unique properties of the CNTs such as chirality.