Regensburg 2000 – scientific programme

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SYNA: Carbon Nanotubes

SYNA IV: HV IV

SYNA IV.1: Invited Talk

Thursday, March 30, 2000, 11:30–12:00, H20

Charge transfer phenomena in carbon nanotube heterodevices — •Arkadi Odintsov — Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

We investigate electronic properties of junctions between a metal and a carbon nanotube as well as between metallic and semiconducting carbon nanotubes. These junctions can be viewed as basic elements for future molecular electronic devices. Ineffective screening of the long range Coulomb interaction in one-dimensional nanotube systems drastically modifies the charge transfer phenomena compared to conventional semiconductor heterostructures. Being brought into a contact with a metal, conducting nanotube accumulates electric charge whose density decays slowly with the distance from the junction. The length of depletion region in nanotube heterojunctions varies over a wide range (from the nanotube radius to the nanotube length) sensitively depending on the doping strength. The Schottky barrier gives rise to an asymmetry of the I-V characteristics of heterojunctions, in agreement with recent experimental results by Yao et al. and Fuhrer et al. Dynamic charge build-up near the junction results in a step-like growth of the current at reverse bias. Finally, we discuss observability of recently predicted Mott-insulating phase in metallic carbon nanotubes.