Photoswitching in azafullerene encapsulated single-walled carbon nanotube FET devices

The photoinduced electrical transport properties of C(59)N@SWNTs are investigated by assembling them into FET devices. Our findings demonstrate that azafullerene molecules inside SWNTs make nanotube FET devices very sensitive to UV light exposure by the decrease of source-drain current upon light exposure. The photoswitching effect is found to be dependent on wavelengths of light and becomes negligible when the wavelength is increased to 480 nm. The photoinduced electron transfer is proposed to take place inside C(59)N@SWNTs due to the specific electronic structure of C(59)N, the heteromolecule bonding of which is sensitive to light.