We study theoretically the interactions of excitonic states with surface electromagnetic modes of small-diameter (~1 nm) semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes. We show that these interactions can result in strong exciton-surface-plasmon coupling. The exciton absorption line shape exhibits Rabi splitting ~0.1 eV as the exciton energy is tuned to the nearest interband surface plasmon resonance of the nanotube. We also show that the quantum confined Stark effect may be used as a tool to control the exciton binding energy and the nanotube band gap in carbon nanotubes in order, e.g., to bring the exciton total energy in resonance with the nearest interband plasmon mode. The exciton-plasmon Rabi splitting we predict here for an individual carbon nanotube is close in its magnitude to that previously reported for hybrid plasmonic nanostructures artificially fabricated of organic semiconductors on metallic films. We expect this effect to open up paths to new tunable optoelectronic device applications of semiconducting carbon nanotubes.
A correlation is observed between the diameter (d) distribution of single walled carbon nanotubes and the percentages of metallic and semiconducting tubes in materials synthesized at low temperature (600 C) by plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition. Small diameter nanotubes (average d~1.1 nm) show semiconducting-tube percentage much higher than expected for random chirality distribution. Density functional theory calculations reveal discernable differences in the cohesive energies and heat of formation energies for similar-diameter metallic, quasi-metallic and semiconducting nanotubes. Semi…
The conditions necessary for a nanotube junction connecting a metallic and semiconducting nanotube to rectify the current are theoretically investigated. A tight binding model is used for the analysis, which includes the Hartree-Fock approximation and the Green's function method. It is found that the junction has a behavior similar to the backward diode if the gate electrode is located nearby and the Fermi level of the semiconducting tube is near the gap. Such a junction would be advantageous since the required length for the rectification could be reduced.
We present an atomistic self-consistent study of the electronic and transport properties of semiconducting carbon nanotube in contact with metal electrodes of different work functions, which shows simultaneous electron and hole doping inside the nanotube junction through contact-induced charge transfer. We find that the band lineup in the nanotube bulk region is determined by the effective work function difference between the nanotube channel and source/drain electrodes, while electron transmission through the SWNT junction is affected by the local band structure modulation at the two metal-na…
We have investigated the magnetoconductance of semiconducting carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in pulsed, parallel magnetic fields up to 60 T, and report the direct observation of the predicted band-gap closure and the reopening of the gap under variation of the applied magnetic field. We also highlight the important influence of mechanical strain on the magnetoconductance of the CNTs.
In carbon nanotubes, the most abundant defects, caused for example by irradiation or chemisorption treatments, are small perturbing clusters, i.e. bi-site defects, extending over both A and B sites. The relative positions of these perturbing clusters play a crucial role in determining the electronic properties of carbon nanotubes. Using bandstructure and electronic transport calculations, we find out that in the case of armchair metallic nanotubes a band gap opens up when the clusters fulfill a certain periodicity condition. This phenomenon might be used in future nanoelectronic devices in whi…
We report a numerical study of the tunnel conductance through the Schottky barrier at the contact between a semiconducting carbon nanotube and a metal electrode. In a planar gate model the asymmetry between the p--doped and the n--doped region is shown to depend mainly on the difference between the electrode Fermi level and the band gap of carbon nanotubes. We quantitatively show how the gate/nanotube distance is important to get large on--off ratios. We explain the bend of the current versus gate voltage as the transition from a thermal--activation region to a tunneling region. A good agreeme…
The electronic Raman scattering (ERS) features of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) can reveal a wealth of information about their electronic structures, but have previously been thought to appear exclusively in metallic (M-) but not in semiconducting (S-) SWNTs. We report the experimental observation of the ERS features with an accuracy of 1 meV in suspended S-SWNTs, the processes of which are accomplished via the available high-energy electron-hole pairs. The ERS features can facilitate further systematic studies on the properties of SWNT, both metallic and semiconducting, with defined …
Ultrafast photocurrent experiments are performed on semiconducting, single-walled carbon nanotubes under a resonant optical excitation of their subbands. The photogenerated excitons are dissociated at large electric fields and the resulting transport of the charge carriers turns out to be ballistic. Thermionic emission processes to the contacts dominate the photocurrent. The charge current without laser excitation is well described by a Fowler-Nordheim tunneling. The time-averaged photocurrent changes polarity as soon as sufficient charge carriers are injected from the contacts, which can be e…
We consider a semiconducting carbon nanotube (CNT) laying on a ferromagnetic insulating sub-strate with one end depassing the substrate and suspended over a metallic gate. We assume that the polarised substrate induces an exchange interaction acting as a local magnetic field for the electrons in the non-suspended CNT side. Generalizing the approach of I. Snyman and Yu.V. Nazarov [Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 076805 (2012)] we show that one can generate electrostatically a tun-able spin-polarized polaronic state localized at the bending end of the CNT. We argue that at low temperatures manipulation an…
The thermoelectric effects in semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are investigated based on the linear response theory combined with the thermal Green's function method. It is shown that the electronic states near the lowest conduction band minimum and the highest valence band maximum can be effectively described in terms of one-dimensional (1D) Dirac electrons to which a theoretical scheme is developed to describe the thermoelectric responses making it possible to study the effects of inter-band impurity scattering and in-gap states. Using the proposed scheme, the bipolar t…
We demonstrate assembly of solution processed semiconducting enriched (99%) single walled carbon nanotubes (s-SWNT) in an array with varying linear density via ac-dielectrophoresis and investigate detailed electronic transport properties of the fabricated devices. We show that (i) the quality of the alignment varies with frequency of the applied voltage and that (ii) by varying the frequency and concentration of the solution, we can control the linear density of the s-SWNTs in the array from 1/μm to 25 /μm. The maximum linear density of 25 s-SWNT /\mum reported here is the highest for any alig…
We study theoretically the charge separation in a planar array of semiconducting nanotubes (NTs) of length, 2h, placed in external electric field, F, parallel to their axes. By employing the conformal mapping, we find analytically the exact distribution of the induced charge density for arbitrary ratio of the gap, E_g, and the voltage drop, eFh, across the NT. We use the result obtained to (i) trace the narrowing of the neutral strip at center of the NT with increasing F; (ii) analyze the polarizability of the array as a function of E_g; (iii) study the field enhancement near the tips.
We present a two-step procedure to probe hotspots of plasmon-enhanced Raman scattering with carbon nanotubes. Dielectrophoretic deposition places a small carbon nanotube bundle on top of plasmonic Au nanodimer. After 'pre-characterising' both the nanotubes and dimer structure, we subsequently use the tip of an AFM to push the bundle into the plasmonic hotspot located in the 25nm wide dimer gap, characterize its location inside the gap, and observe the onset of plasmon-enhanced Raman scattering. Evidence for the activation of the carbon nanotube's double-resonant D-mode by the near-field of the…
The conduction of a single-wall carbon nanotube depends on the pitch. If there are an integral number of carbon hexagons per pitch, then the system is periodic along the tube axis and allows "holes" (, and not "electrons",) to move inside the tube. This case accounts for a semiconducting behavior with the activation energy of the order of around 3 meV. There is a distribution of the activation energy since the pitch and the circumference can vary. Otherwise nanotubes show metallic behaviors. "Electrons" and "holes" can move in the graphene wall (two dimensions). The conduction in the wall is t…
We derive the complete form of the van der Waals dispersion interaction between two infinitely long anisotropic semiconducting/insulating thin cylinders at all separations. The derivation is based on the general theory of dispersion interactions between anisotropic media as formulated in [J. N. Munday, D. Iannuzzi, Yu. S. Barash and F. Capasso, {\sl Phys. Rev. A} {\bf 71}, 042102 (2005)]. This formulation is then used to calculate the dispersion interactions between a pair of single walled carbon nanotubes at all separations and all angles. Non-retarded and retarded forms of the interactions a…
Zero bias conductance per spin of nanotube double junction (NTDJ) is investigated theoretically using the tight binding model, unrestricted Hartree-Fock approximation and non-equilibrium Green's functions. NTDJ consists of two metallic nanotubes joined by a piece of semiconducting nanotube, with the transition between the nanotubes made up of sets of 5 and 7 member carbon rings. A quantum well forms in the central semiconducting NT region, bounded by Schottky barriers. Spin current occurs when Coulomb interactions raise the spin degeneracy of resonant levels in the quantum well. As long as an …
High-performance solution-processed short-channel carbon nanotube (CNT) thin film transistors (TFTs) are fabricated using densely aligned arrays of metallic CNTs (m-CNTs) as source and drain electrodes, and aligned arrays of semiconducting enriched CNTs (s-CNTs) as channel material. The electrical transport measurements at room temperature show that the m-CNT contacted s-CNT array devices with a 2 um channel length perform superiorly to those of control Pd contacted s-CNT devices. The m-CNT contacted devices exhibit a maximum (average) on-conductance of 36.5 uS (19.2 uS), transconductance of 2…
Electronic properties of metal-finite semiconducting carbon nanotube interfaces are studied as a function of the nanotube length using a self-consistent tight-binding theory. We find that the shape of the potential barrier depends on the long-range tail of the charge transfer, leading to an injection barrier thickness comparable to half of the nanotube length until the nanotube reaches the bulk limit. The conductance of the nanotube junction shows a transition from tunneling to thermally-activated transport with increasing nanotube length.
We study theoretically the interactions of excitonic states with surface electromagnetic modes of small-diameter (~1 nm) semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes. We show that these interactions can result in strong exciton-surface-plasmon coupling. The exciton absorption lineshapes exhibit the line (Rabi) splitting $~0.1-0.3$ eV as the exciton energy is tuned to the nearest interband surface plasmon resonance of the nanotube. We expect this effect to open a path to new optoelectronic device applications of semiconducting carbon nanotubes.
The possibility of low-energy surface plasmon amplification by optically excited excitons in small-diameter single wall carbon nanotubes is theoretically demonstrated. The nonradiative exciton-plasmon energy transfer causes the buildup of the macroscopic population numbers of coherent localized surface plasmons associated with high-intensity coherent local fields formed at nanoscale throughout the nanotube surface. These strong local fields can be used in a variety of new optoelectronic applications of carbon nanotubes, including near-field nonlinear-optical probing and sensing, optical switch…
Blends of carbon nanotubes with conjugated polymer and fullerene derivatives are complex nanocomposite systems, which have recently attracted a great research interest for their photovoltaic ability. Therefore, gaining a better understanding of the excitonic dynamics in such materials can be important to boost the efficiency of excitonic solar cells. Here, we studied the photophysics of a ternary system in which the polymer PTB7 and the fullerene derivative PCBM are integrated with (6,5) SWNTs. We highlight the contribution of SWNTs in the exciton dissociation and in the charge transfer proces…
We have theoretically investigated the electromechanical properties of a freely suspended carbon nanotube that is connected to a constant-current source and subjected to an external magnetic field. We show that self-excitation of mechanical vibrations of the nanotube can occur if the magnetic field $H$ exceeds a dissipation-dependent critical value $H_{c}$, which we find to be of the order of 10-100 mT for realistic parameters. The instability develops into a stationary regime characterized by time periodic oscillations in the fundamental bending mode amplitude. We find that for nanotubes with…
We address the effects of disorder on the conducting properties of metal and semiconducting carbon nanotubes. Experimentally, the mean free path is found to be much larger in metallic tubes than in doped semiconducting tubes. We show that this result can be understood theoretically if the disorder potential is long-ranged. The effects of a pseudospin index that describes the internal sublattice structure of the states lead to a suppression of scattering in metallic tubes, but not in semiconducting tubes. This conclusion is supported by tight-binding calculations.
We use the macroscopic quantum electrodynamics approach suitable for absorbing and dispersing media to study the properties and role of collective surface excitations --- excitons and plasmons --- in single-wall and double-wall carbon nanotubes. We show that the interactions of excitonic states with surface electromagnetic modes in individual small-diameter (<~1 nm) single-walled carbon nanotubes can result in strong exciton-surface-plasmon coupling. Optical response of individual nanotubes exhibits Rabi splitting ~0.1 eV, both in the linear excitation regime and in the non-linear excitation r…
Quantum electrodynamics theory of the resonance Raman scattering is developed for an atom in a close proximity to a carbon nanotube. The theory predicts a dramatic enhancement of the Raman intensity in the strong atomic coupling regime to nanotube plasmon near-fields. This resonance scattering is a manifestation of the general electromagnetic surface enhanced Raman scattering effect, and can be used in designing efficient nanotube based optical sensing substrates for single atom detection, precision spontaneous emission control, and manipulation.
A theoretical model for the calculation of the phonon-drag thermopower, $S^{g}$, in degenerately doped semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) is proposed. Detailed calculations of $S^{g}$ are performed as a function of temperature, tube radius and position of the Fermi level. We derive a simple analytical expression for $S^{g}$ that can be utilized to determine the free carrier density in doped nanotubes. At low temperatures $S^{g}$ shows an activated behavior characteristic of the one-dimensional (1D) character of carriers. Screening effects are taken into account and it is foun…
We present the simulation, fabrication and optical characterization of plasmonic gold bowtie nanoantennas on a semiconducting GaAs substrate as geometrical parameters such as size, feed gap, height and polarization of the incident light are varied. The surface plasmon resonance was probed using white light reflectivity on an array of nominally identical, 35nm thick Au antennas. To elucidate the influence of the semiconducting, high refractive index substrate, all experiments were compared using nominally identical structures on glass. Besides a linear shift of the surface plasmon resonance fro…
We calculate the plasma excitations in a bundle as well as a two-dimensional (2D) periodic array of aligned parallel multishell nanotubes on a substrate. The carbon nanotubes are oriented perpendicular to the substrate. The model we use for the system is an electron gas confined to the surface of an infinitely long cylinder embedded in a background dielectric medium. Electron tunneling between individual tubules is neglected. We include the Coulomb interaction between electrons on the same tubule and on different tubules for the same nanotube and neighboring nanotubes. We present a self-consis…
The remarkable electrical and optical properties or single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) allowed for engineering device prototypes showing great potential for applications such as photodectors and solar cells. However, any path towards industrial maturity requires a detailed understanding of the fundamental mechanisms governing the process of photocurrent generation. Here, we present scanning photocurrent microscopy measurements on a double-gated suspended semiconducting SWNT and show that both photovoltaic and photothermal mechanisms are relevant for the interpretation of the photocurrent. W…
We report strategies of achieving both high assembly yield of carbon nanotubes at selected position of the circuit via dielectrophoresis (DEP) and field effect transistor (FET) yield using semiconducting enriched single walled carbon nanotube (s-SWNT) aqueous solution. When the DEP parameters were optimized for the assembly of individual s-SWNT, 97% of the devices show FET behavior with a maximum mobility of 210 cm2/Vs, on-off current ratio ~ 106 and on conductance up to 3 μS, however with an assembly yield of only 33%. As the DEP parameters were optimized so that 1-5 s-SWNTs are connected per…
Electroabsorption spectroscopy of well-identified index-defined semiconducting carbon nanotubes is reported. The measurement of high definition electroabsorption spectra allows direct indexation with unique nanotube chirality. Results show that at least for a limited range of diameters, electroabsorption is directly proportional to the exciton binding energy of nanotubes. Electroabsorption is a powerful technique which directly probes into carbon nanotube excitonic states, and may become a useful tool for in situ study of excitons in future nanotube-based photonic devices such as electroabsorp…
We study theoretically the plasmon scattering at the intersection of two metallic carbon nanotubes. We demonstrate that for a small angle of crossing, $θ\ll 1$, the transmission coefficient is an oscillatory function of $λ/θ$, where $λ$ is the interaction parameter of the Luttinger liquid in an individual nanotube. We calculate the tunnel density of states, $ν(ω,x)$, as a function of energy, $ω$, and distance, $x$, from the intersection. In contrast to a single nanotube, we find that, in the geometry of crossed nanotubes, conventional "rapid" oscillations in $ν(ω,x)$ due to the plasmon scatter…
Plasmon resonance is expected to occur in metallic and doped semiconducting carbon nanotubes in the terahertz frequency range, but its convincing identification has so far been elusive. The origin of the terahertz conductivity peak commonly observed for carbon nanotube ensembles remains controversial. Here we present results of optical, terahertz, and DC transport measurements on highly enriched metallic and semiconducting nanotube films. A broad and strong terahertz conductivity peak appears in both types of films, whose behaviors are consistent with the plasmon resonance explanation, firmly …
We show that the absorption spectrum in semiconducting nanotubes can be determined using the bosonization technique combined with mean-field theory and a harmonic approximation. Our results indicate that a multiple band semiconducting nanotube reduces to a system of weakly coupled harmonic oscillators. Additionally, the quasiparticle nature of the electron and hole that comprise an optical exciton emerges naturally from the bosonized model.
Engineering effective p-wave superconductors hosting Majorana quasiparticles (MQPs) is nowadays of particular interest, also in view of the possible utilization of MQPs in fault-tolerant topological quantum computation. In quasi one-dimensional systems, the parameter space for topological superconductivity is significantly reduced by the coupling between transverse modes. Together with the requirement of achieving the topological phase under experimentally feasible conditions, this strongly restricts in practice the choice of systems which can host MQPs. Here we demonstrate that semiconducting…
We present an atomistic self-consistent tight-binding study of the electronic and transport properties of metal-semiconducting carbon nanotube interfaces as a function of the nanotube channel length when the end of the nanotube wire is buried inside the electrodes. We show that the lineup of the nanotube band structure relative to the metal Fermi-level depends strongly on the metal work function but weakly on the details of the interface. We analyze the length-dependent transport characteristics, which predicts a transition from tunneling to thermally-activated transport with increasing nanotu…
We found a giant Seebeck effect in semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) films, which exhibited a performance comparable to that of commercial Bi2Te3 alloys. Carrier doping of semiconducting SWCNT films further improved the thermoelectric performance. These results were reproduced well by first-principles transport simulations based on a simple SWCNT junction model. These findings suggest strategies that pave the way for emerging printed, all-carbon, flexible thermoelectric devices.
We investigated, both experimentally and theoretically, the reflection phase shift (RPS) of one-dimensional plasmon polaritons. We launched 1D plasmon polaritons in carbon nanotube and probed the plasmon interference pattern using scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) technique, through which a non-zero phase shift was observed. We further developed a theory to understand the nonzero phase shift of 1D polaritons, and found that the RPS can be understood by considering the evanescent field beyond the nanotube end. Interesting, our theory shows a strong dependence of RPS on polaritons wa…
In high magnetic fields, the exciton absorption spectrum of a semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotube splits as a result of Aharonov-Bohm magnetic flux. A magnetic field of 370 T, generated by the electro-magnetic flux compression destructive pulsed magnet-coil technique, was applied to single-chirality semiconducting carbon nanotubes. Using streak spectroscopy, we demonstrated the separation of the independent band-edge exciton states at the K and K' points of the Brillouin zone after the mixing of the dark and bright states above 150 T. These results enable a quantitative discussion of …
We demonstrate the realization of an electrically-driven integrated source of surface plasmon polaritons. Light-emitting individual single-walled carbon nanotube field effect transistors were fabricated in a plasmonic-ready platform. The devices were operated at ambient condition to act as an electroluminescence source localized near the contacting gold electrodes. We show that photon emission from the semiconducting channel can couple to propagating surface plasmons developing in the electrical terminals. Momentum-space spectroscopy suggests that excited plasmon modes are bound to the metal-g…
In this work, we have examined how the multi-vacancy defects induced in the horizontal direction change the energetics and the electronic structure of semiconducting Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (SWCNTs). The electronic structure of SWCNTs is computed for each deformed configuration by means of real space, Order(N) Tight Binding Molecular Dynamic (O(N) TBMD) simulations. Energy band gap is obtained in real space through the behavior of electronic density of states (eDOS) near the Fermi level. Vacancies can effectively change the energetics and hence the electronic structure of SWCNTs. In thi…
We calculate the thermoelectric power (or thermopower) of many semiconducting single wall carbon nanotubes (s-SWNTs) within a diameter range 0.5-1.5 nm by using the Boltzmann transport formalism combined with an extended tight-binding model. We find that the thermopower of s-SWNTs increases as the tube diameter decreases. For some s-SWNTs with diameters less than 0.6 nm, the thermopower can reach a value larger than 2000 μV/K at room temperature, which is about 6 to 10 times larger than that found in commonly used thermoelectric materials. The large thermopower values may be attributed to the …
At reduced dimensionality, Coulomb interactions play a crucial role in determining device properties. While such interactions within the same carbon nanotube have been shown to have unexpected properties, device integration and multi-nanotube devices require the consideration of inter-nanotube interactions. We present calculations of the characteristics of planar carbon nanotube transistors including interactions between semiconducting nanotubes and between semiconducting and metallic nanotubes. The results indicate that inter-tube interactions affect both the channel behavior and the contacts…
We present a quantization of the hydrodynamic model to describe the excitation of plasmons in a single-walled carbon nanotube by a fast point charge moving near its surface at an arbitrary angle of incidence. Using a two-dimensional electron gas represented by two interacting fluids, which takes into account the different nature of the sigma and pi electrons, we obtain plasmon energies in near-quantitative agreement with experiment. Further, the implemented quantization procedure allows us to study the probability of exciting various plasmon modes, as well as the stopping force and energy loss…
Semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotubes are classified into two types by means of orbital angular momentum of valley state, which is useful to study their low energy electronic properties in finite-length. The classification is given by an integer $d$, which is the greatest common divisor of two integers $n$ and $m$ specifying the chirality of nanotubes, by analyzing cutting lines. For the case that $d$ is equal to or greater than four, two lowest subbands from two valleys have different angular momenta with respect to the nanotube axis. Reflecting the decoupling of two valleys, discrete e…
In-situ Raman experiments together with transport measurements have been carried out on carbon nanotubes as a function of gate voltage. In metallic tubes, a large increase in the Raman frequency of the $G^-$ band, accompanied by a substantial decrease of its line-width, is observed with electron or hole doping. In addition, we see an increase in Raman frequency of the $G^+$ band in semiconducting tubes. These results are quantitatively explained using ab-initio calculations that take into account effects beyond the adiabatic approximation. Our results imply that Raman spectroscopy can be used …
We investigate theoretically the switching characteristics of semiconducting carbon nanotubes connected to gold electrodes under an external (gate) electric field. We find that the external introduction of holes is necessary to account for the experimental observations. We identify metal-induced-gap states (MIGS) at the contacts and find that the MIGS of an undoped tube would not significantly affect the switching behavior, even for very short tube lengths. We also explore the miniaturization limits of nanotube transistors, and, on the basis of their switching ratio, we conclude that transisto…
Semiconducting carbon nanotubes under high electric field stress (~10 V/um) display a striking, exponential current increase due to avalanche generation of free electrons and holes. Unlike in other materials, the avalanche process in such 1D quantum wires involves access to the third sub-band, is insensitive to temperature, but strongly dependent on diameter ~exp(-1/d^2). Comparison with a theoretical model yields a novel approach to obtain the inelastic optical phonon emission length, L_OP,ems ~ 15d nm. The combined results underscore the importance of multi-band transport in 1D molecular wir…
We investigate the electronic transport properties of semiconducting ($m$,$n$) carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on the mesoscopic length scale with arbitrarily distributed realistic defects. The study is done by performing quantum transport calculations based on recursive Green's function techniques and an underlying density-functional-based tight-binding model for the description of the electronic structure. Zigzag CNTs as well as chiral CNTs of different diameter are considered. Different defects are exemplarily represented by monovacancies and divacancies. We show the energy-dependent transmission a…
We report optical separation of metallic and semiconducting single walled carbon nanotubes of specific diameters from well-dispersed, stable solution. This phenomenon of optical separation was studied using lamps of different frequencies across UV, Vis and NIR spectrum. Optically aggregated SWNTs were separated from the SWNTs remaining dispersed in the solution and characterized using absorption and Raman spectroscopy. Separated SWNTs distinctly show enrichment of metallic SWNTs using UV lamp, whereas different diameter of SWNTs aggregates out depending on the frequency of illumination. Fabric…
We report specifically two things, one the phenomenon of optically induced motion in pristine single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) on the macro-scale and other the consequent separation of metallic and semiconducting enriched SWNT aggregates. Experiments provide direct evidence of both positive and negative photophoresis of SWNTs in solution i.e. motion away and towards light respectively. This optically induced motion was found to be dependent on frequency and intensity of light. Aggregates of pristine SWNT, moving under UV and Visible lamp were separated and characterized using absorption a…
We present a first-principles study of the electronic transport properties of micrometer long semiconducting CNTs randomly covered with carbene functional groups. Whereas prior studies suggested that metallic tubes are hardly affected by such addends, we show here that the conductance of semiconducting tubes with standard diameter is on the contrary severely damaged. The configurational averaged conductance as a function of tube diameter and with a coverage of up to one hundred functional groups is extracted. Our results indicate that the search for a conductance-preserving covalent functional…
We investigate electronic transport properties of Schottky-barrier field-effect transistors (FET) based on double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWNT) with a semiconducting outer shell and a metallic inner one. These kind of DWNT-FET show asymmetries of the $I$-$V$ characteristics and threshold voltages due to the electron-hole asymmetry of the Schottky barrier. The presence of the metallic inner shell induces a large effective band gap, which is one order of magnitude larger than that due to the semiconducting shell alone of a single-walled carbon nanotube FET.
How carbon nanotubes behave in an external electric field? What will be the relation between the intensity of the electric field and the tube's deformation? What are the geometry effects on the response of carbon nanotubes to electric fields? To answer these questions, we have developed a new combined computational technique to study electrostatic field induced deformations of carbon nanotubes. In this work, we find that the deflection angle of cantilevered semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes is proportional to the square of the electric field strength, and the tubes can be most bent…
We observe current rectification in a molecular diode consisting of a semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotube and an impurity. One half of the nanotube has no impurity, and it has a current-voltage (I-V) charcteristic of a typical semiconducting nanotube. The other half of the nanotube has the impurity on it, and its I-V characteristic is that of a diode. Current in the nanotube diode is carried by holes transported through the molecule's one-dimensional subbands. At 77 Kelvin we observe a step-wise increase in the current through the diode as a function of gate voltage, showing that we can…
Charge transport in semiconducting single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) with Schottky-barrier contacts has been studied at high bias. We observe nearly symmetric ambipolar transport with electron and hole currents significantly exceeding 25 micron-ampere, the reported current limit in metallic SWNTs due to optical phonon emission. Four simple models for the field-dependent velocity (ballistic, current saturation, velocity saturation, and constant mobility) are studied in the unipolar regime; the high-bias behavior is best explained by a velocity saturation model with a saturation velocity of 2 x 10…
We present new data and a compact mobility model for single-wall carbon nanotubes, with only two adjustable parameters, the elastic and inelastic collision mean free paths at 300 K. The mobility increases with diameter, decreases with temperature, and has a more complex dependence on charge density. The model and data suggest the room temperature mobility does not exceed 10,000 cm2/V.s at high carrier density (n > 0.5 nm-1) for typical single-wall nanotube diameters, due to the strong scattering effect of the second subband.
