The role of electrical and thermal contact resistance for Joule breakdown of single-wallcarbon nanotubes

Abstract

Several data sets for the electrical breakdown in air of single-wall carbon nanotubes(SWNTs) on insulating substrates are collected and analyzed. A universal scaling of theJoule breakdown power with nanotube length is found, which appears to be independent ofthe substrate thermal properties of their thickness. This suggests that the thermalresistances at SWNT–insulator and at SWNT–electrode interfaces govern heatsinking from the nanotube. Analytical models for the breakdown power scalingare presented, providing an intuitive, physical understanding of the breakdownprocess. The electrical and thermal resistances at the electrode contacts limit thebreakdown behavior for sub-micron SWNTs; the breakdown power scales linearlywith length for tubes that are microns long, and a minimum breakdown power(∼0.05 mW) is observed forthe intermediate (∼0.5 µm) length range.