Pressure control of conducting channels in singlewall nanotube networks

TL;DR

This study investigates how pressure influences the electrical conductance and Luttinger liquid behavior in single-wall nanotube networks, revealing pressure-dependent conductance changes and the limits of LL behavior before collapse.

Contribution

It provides experimental evidence of pressure effects on LL parameters and explores the transition limits to Fermi liquid behavior in nanotube networks.

Findings

Conductance increases with pressure while alpha decreases.

The high frequency cutoff of LL modes is determined.

Nanotubes collapse to an insulator at high pressures.

Abstract

We measure electrical transport on networks of single wall nanotube ropes as a function of temperature T, voltage V and pressure up to 22GPa. We observe Luttinger liquid (LL) behavior, a conductance ~T^alpha and a dynamic conductance ~V^alpha. With pressure conductance increases while alpha decreases, enabling us to test the theoretical prediction for LL on the alpha dependence of the T and V independent coefficient of the tunneling conductance, and to obtain the high frequency cut-off of LL modes. The possible transition to a fermi liquid at alpha -> 0 is unattainable, as nanotubes collapse to an insulating state at high pressures.