Nanofissure formation during selective breakdown of m-SWNT in an aligned array

Selective removal of metallic single walled carbon nanotubes (m-SWNT) in an aligned array is needed for restoring semiconducting properties and better device performance. The selective removal is done via electrical breakdown of m-SWNT while applying a large gate voltage to preserve semiconducting SWNT. In this work, we show using electrical measurements and scanning electron microscopy imaging that in a sufficiently dense array, not only the m-SWNT breaks down but also s-SWNT breaks down in a correlated fashion giving rise to a nano fissure pattern. This is in contrast to the established understanding that SWNTs are broken in a random fashion. The origin of the correlated breakdown is due to the electrostatic field of the broken nanotubes that produces locally inhomogeneous current and Joule heating distributions in the neighboring intact nanotubes triggering their breakdowns in the vicinity of the broken nanotubes