A theory of superconductivity in multi-walled carbon nanotubes

TL;DR

This paper develops a theoretical framework to understand how electronic interactions and geometric arrangements in doped multi-walled carbon nanotubes can lead to superconductivity, especially through inter-shell Cooper pair tunneling.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to analyze electronic instabilities in multi-walled nanotubes considering multiple Fermi points and shell tunneling effects.

Findings

Superconducting instability depends on the number of Fermi points.

Inter-shell Cooper pair tunneling enhances the transition to superconductivity.

A phase diagram illustrating the transition from Luttinger liquid to superconducting state.

Abstract

We devise an approach to describe the electronic instabilities of doped multi-walled nanotubes, where each shell has in general a manifold of Fermi points. Our analysis relies on the scale dependence of the different scattering processes, showing that a pairing instability arises for a large enough number of Fermi points as a consequence of their particular geometric arrangement. The instability is enhanced by the tunneling of Cooper pairs between nearest shells, giving rise to a transition from the Luttinger liquid to a superconducting state in a wide region of the phase diagram.