Proximity Effect of Magnesium Diboride on Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube: an Ab Initio Study
- SUS Government College (India)
- National Institute of Technology (India)
Magnesium diboride (MgB{sub 2}) superconductor with excellent physical properties continues to attract the attention of researchers since its discovery. It derives its versatility from the absence of weak links, large coherence length, and small anisotropy. On the other hand, reports of superconductivity in small-diameter single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) suspended between superconducting contacts and proximity induced supercurrents in Ta/SWNTs/Au junctions have also aroused great interest in the scientific community. Proximity induced superconductivity in SWCNTs has opened up new frontiers of research which will lead to many novel discoveries. This paper reports ab initio investigations on the proximity effect of MgB{sub 2} on the electronic structure of a SWCNT. Condensation of electronic states is observed in the electronic band structure of the pristine SWCNT when MgB{sub 2} is held in proximity. An additional band gap is generated below the lowest energy state of the valence band of the pristine CNT which we suggest, is due to Cooper pair formation. This leads to the prediction that SWCNTs will show superconducting properties in proximity of MgB{sub 2}. We envision MgB{sub 2}-coated SWCNTs as a novel nanomaterial that has a combination of proximity induced superconductivity and inherently unique mechanical and optical properties of SWCNTs.
- OSTI ID:
- 22776958
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Superconductivity and Novel Magnetism, Vol. 31, Issue 4; Other Information: Copyright (c) 2018 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature; Article Copyright (c) 2017 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC; http://www.springer-ny.com; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1557-1939
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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