Special Topic Issue on the Theme of
Nanostructured Systems
Nanomeasurements of individual carbon nanotubes by
in situ TEM
Z. L. Wang*, P. Poncharal, and W. A. de Heer
*School of Materials Science and Engineering,
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332 USA
Abstract: Property characterization of nanomaterials
is challenged by the small size of the structure because of the difficulties
in manipulation. Here we demonstrate a novel approach that allows a
direct measurement of the mechanical and electrical properties of individual
nanotube-like structures by in situ transmission electron microscopy
(TEM). The technique is powerful in a way that it can be directly correlated
to the atomic-scale microstructure of the carbon nanotube with its physical
properties, thus providing a complete characterization of the nanotube.
Applications of the technique will be demonstrated in measurements of
the mechanical properties, the electron field emission, and the ballistic
quantum conductance of individual carbon nanotubes. A nanobalance technique
is demonstrated that can be applied to measure the mass of a single
tiny particle as light as 22 fg (1 f = 10-15 ).
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