The effect of elastic disorder on single electron transport through a buckled nanotube

TL;DR

This paper investigates how elastic disorder influences electron transport in a buckled nanotube-based transistor, revealing a phenomenon called elastic curvature blockade and its effects on current-voltage characteristics.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of elastic curvature blockade and analyzes its impact on electron transport near the Euler buckling instability.

Findings

Elastic disorder causes a threshold bias voltage in the I-V curve.

Random curvature leads to an additional current plateau.

Transport sensitivity is heightened near buckling instability.

Abstract

We study transport properties of a single electron transistor based on elastic nanotube. Assuming that an external compressive force is applied to the nanotube, we focus on the vicinity of the Euler buckling instability. We demonstrate that in this regime the transport through the transistor is extremely sensitive to elastic disorder. In particular, built-in curvature (random or regular) leads to the ``elastic curvature blockade'': appearance of threshold bias voltage in the $I$-$V$ curve which can be larger than the Coulomb-blockade-induced one. In the case of a random curvature, an additional plateau in dependence of the average current on a bias voltage appears.