Platform for strainable, tem-compatible, mems-embedded carbon nanotube transistors

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) can exhibit large electromechanical responses to strain and are therefore promising candidates for next generation nano-electromechanical systems (NEMS). A platform for SWNT integration is presented that aims for strainable, TEM-compatible field-effect transistors, useful for both fundamental investigations and new device concepts. Here, we show the first chirality assignment to a suspended ultraclean SWNT field-effect transistor fabricated by the on-chip shadow masking technique, allowing for qualitative, and prospectively quantitative, verification of experimental data. Carbon nanotubes are tensile loaded via thermomechanical MEMS actuators inside a transmission electron microscope, where Pd beads are used to identify the strain regime.