Quantum interference in multiwall carbon nanotubes

Abstract

Recent low temperature conductance measurements on multiwall carbon nanotubes in perpendicular and parallel magnetic fields are reported. An efficient gating technique allows for considerable tuning of the nanotube doping level. This enables us to study extensively the effect of the nanotube bandstructure on electron quantum interference effects such as weak localization, universal conductance fluctuations and the Aharonov–Bohm effect. We show that the magnetoresistance in the perpendicular magnetic field is strongly suppressed at certain gate voltages Ugate which can be linked with the bottoms of one-dimensional electronic subbands. This assignment allows a detailed comparison of theoretical calculations with the experimental data. In agreement with the theory, a pronounced energy dependence of the elastic mean free path with a strong enhancement close to the charge neutrality point is observed. In the large parallel magnetic field, we observe a superposition of h/2e-periodic Altshuler–Aronov–Spivak oscillations and an additional h/e-periodic contribution to the conductivity. The latter contribution shows a diamond-like pattern in the B − Ugate-plane, which reflects the magnetic field dependence of the density of states of the nanotube's outermost shell.