Single-wall carbon nanotubes

Solid-state devices in which electrons are confined to two-dimensional planes have provided some of the most exciting scientific and technological breakthroughs of the last 50 years. From metal-oxide-silicon field effect transistors to high-mobility gallium-arsenide heterostructures, these devices have played a key role in the microelectronics revolution and are critical components in a wide array of products from computers to compact-disk players. From a more parochial perspective, the study of electrons in two-dimensional systems has also been responsible for two Nobel prizes in physics – to Klaus von Klitzing in 1985 and to Robert Laughlin, Horst Stormer and Daniel Tsui in 1998. This is testimony to the basic as well as applied interest of such devices (see Heiblum and Stern in further reading).