Department of Physics Papers

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of this Version

1-3-2011

Comments

Suggested Citation:
A.A. Maarouf and E.J. Mele. (2011). "Low-energy coherent transport in metallic carbon nanotube junctions." Physical Review B. 83, 045402.

© 2011 The American Physical Society
http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.83.045402

Abstract

We study the low-energy electronic properties of a junction made of two crossed metallic carbon nanotubes of general chiralities. We derive a tight-binding tunneling matrix element that couples low-energy states on the two tubes, which allows us to calculate the contact conductance of the junction. We find that the intrinsic asymmetries of the junction cause the forward- and backward-hopping probabilities from one tube to another to be different. This defines a zero-field Hall conductance for the junction, which we find to scale inversely with the junction contact conductance. Through a systematic study of the dependence of the junction conductance on different junction parameters, we find that the crossing angle is the dominant factor that determines the magnitude of the conductance.


Date Posted: 13 January 2011

This document has been peer reviewed.