Boron-Doped Carbon Nanotube Films

Here we report room temperature optical and resistivity studies on transparent thin films of bundled single-walled carbon nanotubes exposed to B$_{2}$O$_{3}$ at 1000$^{o}$C. This reaction is proposed to B-dope the films. They are stable in air. At 300K the four-probe sheet resistance and the optical transmission in the NIR-UV range are used to evaluate the effects of this chemical exposure. Our preliminary results show that for films with a visible optical transmittance around 80{\%} (550nm), the sheet resistance in the pristine film is lowered from $\sim $2K$\Omega $ to $\sim $300$\Omega $ via B$_{2}$O$_{3}$ exposure, a factor of five decrease. We find that the magnitude of the decrease in the sheet resistance increases in samples with higher transmission. Our results suggest that boron-doped SWNT may provide a better approach to touch-screen technology, as well as for transparent contacts in solar cells.