Helicity and electron correlation effects on transport properties of double-walled carbon nanotubes

TL;DR

This paper analytically explores how helicity and electron interactions influence the transport properties of double-walled carbon nanotubes, revealing helicity-dependent tunneling rules and the impact of electron correlations on conduction.

Contribution

It introduces analytical selection rules for intershell tunneling based on helicity and examines electron correlation effects in both commensurate and incommensurate nanotubes.

Findings

Intershell tunneling is helicity-dependent, with negligible coupling in incommensurate nanotubes at low energies.

Electron interactions significantly affect transport, especially in incommensurate nanotubes.

The elastic mean free path decreases with energy and is suppressed at subband onsets.

Abstract

We analytically demonstrate helicity determined selection rules for intershell tunneling in double-walled nanotubes with commensurate (c-DWNTs) and incommensurate (i-DWNTs) shells. For i-DWNTs the coupling is negligible between lowest energy subbands, but it becomes important as the higher subbands become populated. In turn the elastic mean free path of i-DWNTs is reduced for increasing energy, with additional suppression at subband onsets. At low energies, a Luttinger liquid theory for DWNTs with metallic shells is derived. Interaction effects are more pronounced in i-DWNTs.