We report on electric field effects on electron transport in multi-walled MoS2 nanotubes (NTs), fabricated using a two-step synthesis method from Mo6SxI9-x nanowire bundle precursors. Transport properties were measured on 20 single nanotube field effect transistor (FET) devices, and compared with MoS2 layered crystal devices prepared using identical fabrication techniques. The NTs exhibited mobilities of up to 0.014 cm2V−1s−1 and an on/off ratio of up to 60. As such they are comparable with previously reported WS2 nanotube FETs, but materials defects and imperfections apparently limit their performance compared with multilayer MoS2 FETs with similar number of layers.

The superconducting state in one-dimensional nanosystems is very delicate. While fluctuations of the phase of the superconducting wave function lead to the spontaneous decay of persistent supercurrents in thin superconducting wires and nanocircuits, discrete phase-slip fluctuations can also lead to more exotic phenomena, such as the appearance of metastable superconducting states in current-bearing wires. Here we show that switching between different metastable superconducting states in δ-MoN nanowires can be very effectively manipulated by introducing small amplitude electrical noise. Furthermore, we show that deterministic switching between metastable superconducting states with different numbers of phase-slip centres can be achieved in both directions with small electrical current pulse perturbations of appropriate polarity. The observed current-controlled bi-stability is in remarkable agreement with theoretically predicted trajectories of the system switching between different limit cycle solutions of a model one-dimensional superconductor.

We demonstrate a new and effective method of producing single-phase superconducting δ3-MoN nanowires from bundled Mo6SyIz (8.2 ≤ y + z ≤ 10) nanowire templates in the presence of ammonia gas. Magnetic susceptibility and electrical resistance measurements confirm single-phase material synthesis. Measurements of four-contact resistance on single wires with diameters above 100 nm in a magnetic field are used to determine the critical field, while diameter dependence and magnetization measurements are used to investigate the homogeneity of the nanowires.

We describe a straightforward technique to synthesize pure Mo nanowires (NWs) from Mo6SyIz (8,2 15 nm) Mo NWs are highly porous, while small diameters (<7 nm) are made of solid nanocrystalline grains. We find NW of diameter 4 nm can carry up to 30 μA current without suffering structural degradation. Moreover, NWs can be elastically deformed over several cycles without signs of plastic deformation.