Correlated breakdown of carbon nanotubes in an ultra-high density aligned array

Abstract

We demonstrate that in a densely packed aligned array of single walled carbon nanotubes, the breakdown of one nanotube leads to a highly correlated breakdown of neighboring nanotubes, thereby producing a nano-fissure. We show that the origin of the correlation is 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. Our results suggest that the densely aligned array behaves like a correlated solid.