Thermoelectric Power of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Journal Article · Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 1998 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.1042· OSTI ID:573998

Hone, J; Ellwood, I; Muno, M; Mizel, A; Cohen, M L; Zettl, A ^[1]; Rinzler, A G; Smalley, R E ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States)
2. Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, Rice Quantum Institute, Houston, Texas 77721 (United States)

We have measured the temperature-dependent thermoelectric power (TEP) of crystalline ropes of single-walled carbon nanotubes. The TEP is large and holelike at high temperatures and approaches zero as T{r_arrow}0 . The results argue against the opening of a gap at low temperature in these materials. When derived from a simple band structure picture, the TEP of a single metallic nanotube is significantly lower than the measured TEP, strongly suggesting that the predicted electron-hole symmetry of metallic nanotubes is broken when the tubes self-assemble into ropes. Different models for the symmetry breaking are considered. {copyright} {ital 1998} {ital The American Physical Society}

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
• DOE Contract Number: AC03-76SF00098
• OSTI ID: 573998
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 80; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
CARBON
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE
SYMMETRY BREAKING
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
THERMOELECTRIC PROPERTIES
TUBULES