Fluctuation-Enhanced Sensing of Molecules with Biased Carbon Nanotubes, or Nanowires, and Adsorption-Desorption Fluctuations

. A new nanoscale device for fluctuation-enhanced sensing is proposed. Fluctuation-Enhanced sensing (FES) [1] has recently been proposed for the detection of chemical and biological agents with sensitivity and selectivity superior to sensing methods based on the steady-state sensor signal. The stochastic component of the sensor signal is separated, strongly amplified and statistically analyzed to generate a pattern which serves as the finger print of the agent. To utilize all the advantages of FES, the characteristic size of the sensor should be in the nanoscale range (non-Gaussian fluctuations) and a large number of micro-integrated integrated detectors (electronic dog nose) should be used for enhanced sensitivity and very low agent concentrations. pair, pair driven