摘要: Carbon nanotubes are seamlessly rolled sheets of carbon atoms, only a few nanometres across. Remarkable electronic properties were predicted for in 1992 — namely that they can be either metallic or semiconducting depending on their diameter and helicity. This has now been confirmed by experiments single nanotubes. Distorted junctions between different types might used nanometre-scale devices such as transistors electron emitters, early the next century.