Temperature Dependent Resistivity of Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the resistivity of single wall carbon nanotubes varies with temperature, combining theoretical modeling of electron-twiston interactions with experimental measurements to understand their metallic behavior.

Contribution

It introduces a one-dimensional theory of electron scattering by twistons and compares its predictions with experimental resistivity data for high purity nanotubes.

Findings

Resistivity increases approximately linearly with temperature.

The twiston scattering theory accurately predicts the temperature dependence.

Experimental data supports the theoretical model.

Abstract

Nonchiral single wall carbon nanotubes with an "armchair" wrapping are theoretically predicted to be conducting, and high purity samples consisting predominantly of these tubes exhibit metallic behavior with an intrinsic resistivity which increases approximately linearly with temperature over a wide temperature range. Here we study the coupling of the conduction electrons to long wavelength torsional shape fluctuations, or twistons. A one dimensional theory of the scattering of electrons by twistons is presented which predicts an intrinsic resistivity proportional to the absolute temperature. Experimental measurements of the temperature dependence of the resistivity are reported and compared with the predictions of the twiston theory.