A simple, reliable technique for making electrical contact to multiwalled carbon nanotubes

A simple method of making reliable electrical contact to multiwalled carbon nanotubes is described. With these contacts, current in the mA range can be routinely passed through individual multiwalled nanotubes without adverse consequences, thus allowing their resistance to be measured using a common multimeter. The contacts are robust enough to withstand temperature excursions between room temperature and 77 K. I(V) data from different multiwalled nanotubes are presented and analyzed. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)04102-9].