The outcome proves that none of both experiments influences somehow the electric response and sustains a very good reproducibility of the I V spectroscopy. The estimated average error bar approaches 2% and 4% relative to the average resistance determined for the selected I and II MWCNT arrays, respectively. Similar conductivity obtained on distinct locations supports the current mapping in what concerns the good homogeneity inside individual MWCNT arrays. The obtained linear I V spectra indicate that the metallic character of the MWCNTs is in good Selleck LY2603618 agreement with the results obtained from Raman spectroscopy and

TEM studies [8]. It is more important to highlight that the formation of the MWCNT/metal contact preserves the metallic behaviour which however is not always necessarily the case. Furthermore, voltage-dependent current mapping allows probing the electric response upon a couple of sample biases at one MK-0457 order glance (see Figure  4c). This type of study is mostly recommended and helpful for INCB28060 mouse very small objects like, for example, lying CNTs, where the tip positioning and consequently a reproducible tip-CNT contact geometry becomes problematic. However, in this case, it can be furthermore used to check the correlation with the I V spectroscopy. In Figure  4d, two profile lines are depicted for two different sample biases, namely 50 mV (red line) and 25 mV

(blue line) (refer to Figure  4c as well). The pointing-up arrows (refer to Figure  4a,b) obeying the same colour code indicate the current values obtained via I V spectroscopy Thymidylate synthase for the previously mentioned sample biases. A very good agreement between the I V spectroscopy and the voltage-dependent current

mapping can be clearly observed. The outcome looks very promising in investigating long and narrow nano-objects. As, for example, a lying single-walled CNT (with a length in the micron range but a diameter of only 1 nm) can presumably be very accurately sectioned via the voltage-dependent current mapping rather than performing uncertain I V spectroscopy with random tip-CNT contact geometry. The few obtained I V points will be sufficient to get a trend and therefore an insight into the electric behaviour (linear or non-linear). A similar study can be successfully extended at larger scale as can be observed from Figure  5. The same good analogy can be made between the voltage-dependent current mapping and the I-V spectroscopy. In both cases, variations in the electric response could be emphasized from array to array. Figure 5 Topography (a) vs. voltage-dependent current map (b); corresponding I – V characteristics of indicated MWCNT arrays (c). The estimated resistances of the investigated MWCNT arrays are included in Table  1. As shown previously, an error bar up to 4% might occur.