Possible explanation for the conductance of a single quantum unit in metallic carbon nanotubes
- Department of Physics and Center for Theoretical Physics, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea (Korea, Republic of)
- Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States)
The quantum conductance of a metallic carbon nanotube with one end immersed in a jellium metal is studied. We find that the incident {pi}{sup *}-band electrons, having a very high angular momentum with respect to the tube axis, go through the tube without being scattered by the free electrons in surrounding metal and contribute a quantum unit (2e{sup 2}/h) to the conductance. On the other hand, the incident {pi}-band electrons, with the p{sub z} atomic orbitals in phase along the tube circumference, experience strong resonant back-scattering because the low-angular-momentum states at the Fermi level have a dominantly metallic character in the nanotube-jellium metal coexistence region. These results provide a possible explanation for the experimentally observed conductance of one quantum unit instead of two for nanotubes with one end dipped into liquid metal such as mercury. (c) 1999 The American Physical Society.
- OSTI ID:
- 20217939
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, Vol. 60, Issue 20; Other Information: PBD: 15 Nov 1999; ISSN 1098-0121
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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