Modeling Carbon Nanotube Sensors

Carbon nanotube sensors are modeled and their design space analyzed. It is found that semiconducting nanotubes are almost always preferred over metallic nanotubes, intrinsic nanotubes maximize sensor performance, while minimizing static power consumption, and higher biasing points maximize dynamic range, while improving sensitivity. Insights into design of nanoscale sensors for optimal performance are provided, and it is shown that single-molecule analyte detection can be readily achieved with 1 nm diameter nanotubes up to 30 mum in length.