Contact-electrode insensitive rectifiers based on carbon nanotube network transistors

This letter presents rectifiers based on the diode connection of carbon nanotube network (CNN) transistors. Despite a low density of carbon nanotubes in the CNNs, the devices can achieve excellent performance with a forward/reverse current ratio reaching 10(5). By casting nanotube suspension on oxidized Si substrates with predefined electrodes, CNN-based field-effect transistors are readily prepared. By short-circuiting the source and gate terminals, CNN-based rectifiers are realized with the rectification characteristics independent of whether Pd or Al is employed as the contact electrodes. This independence is especially attractive for applications of CNN-based transistors/rectifiers in flexible electronics with various printing techniques.