Analysis of contact resistance in single-walled carbon nanotube channel and graphene electrodes in a thin film transistor

In this work, we present the experimental investigation on the contact resistance of graphene/single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) junction using transfer length method with the simple equivalent circuit model. We find that p–n like junctions are formed in graphene/SWCNT transistors, and the contact resistance in the junction is observed to be ~ 494 and ~ 617 kΩ in case of metallic SWCNT (m-SWCNT) and semiconducting SWCNT (s-SWCNT), respectively. In addition, the contact resistance increases from 617 to 2316 kΩ as V(g) increases from − 30 to − 10 V. Through our study, high carrier density induced from doping in both graphene and SWCNT leads to low contact resistance. This development of contact engineering, namely modulation of carrier density in the junction and contact length (L(con)) scaling shows the potential for all-carbon based electronics. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s40580-017-0130-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.