Electronic transport properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes under a low bias

Abstract

In this paper,changing patterns of electronic velocity and effective mass of the lowest conduction band for various carbon nanotubes are calculated systematically. Based on these calculation results,low-bias transport properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and deduced thoroughly. It is found that under a low bias,chiral metallic SWCNTs belonging to the same series ( i.e,having the same chiral angles) have the entirely identical transport properties and are independent of diameter of the SWCNT. But those that belong to different series have obviously distinguishable transport properties. While for chiral semi-conducting SWCNTs belonging to the same series,they have some different transport properties. But those that belong to different series have greatly different transport properties. Our findings suggest that low-bias transport properties of SWCNTs are intimately related to the series and the chiral angle is the most important geometry parameter for the determination of different low-bias transport properties of various SWCNTs.