Electromechanical transducers based on single-walled carbon nanotubes

Carbon Nanotubes are intensively studied as a new functional material for nanoelectronics and nano electromechanical systems, including nanosensor devices. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) show unique mechanical and electromechanical properties and they change electronic properties by interacting with the environment (this can be e.g. used for chemical and biochemical sensing). Therefore nanotubes are very promising candidates for active elements in future nanoscaled transducers. Concepts for carbon nanotube sensors for mechanical and chemical detection schemes are presented. We focus on single-walled carbon nanotubes as natural macro molecular functional structures with an option for low scale integration in micro and nano electromechanical systems (MEMS and NEMS).