Electronic transport in carbon nanotubes: Diffusive and localized regimes

Abstract

A fully self-consistent analysis of Boltzmann's equations for electrons and phonons is used to study how the resistance of single-walled carbon nanotubes evolves as a function of its length. We demonstrate that the population of hot optical phonons controls the electronic transport of short nanotubes, whereas acoustical phonons take the leading role when the nanotube is very long. In this limit of long tubes, we also analyze the interplay between the diffusive and localized transport regimes when the electron mean-free path and the localization length due to impurities are comparable.