Electrical resistance of a carbon nanotube bundle

Abstract

The first direct electrical resistance measurements performed on a single carbon nanotube bundle from room temperature down to 0.3 K and in magnetic fields up to 14 T are reported. From the temperature dependence of the resistance above 2 K, it is shown that some nanotubes exhibit a semimetallic behavior akin to rolled graphene sheets with a similar band structure, except that the band overlap, Δ ≈ 3.7 meV, is about 10 times smaller than for crystalline graphite. In contrast to graphite which shows a constant low-temperature resistivity, the nanotubes exhibit a striking increase of the resistance followed by a broad maximum at very low temperatures. A magnetic field applied perpendicular to the sample axis decreases the resistance. Above 1 K, this behavior is consistent with the formation of Landau levels. At lower temperatures, the resistance shows an unexpected drop at a critical temperature which increases linearly with magnetic field. These striking features could be related to the unique quasi-one-dimensional structure of the carbon nanotubes.

Electronic transport in extended systems: Application to carbon nanotubes

“…Among all the possible nanostructure materials, carbon nanotubes have attracted much attention since their discovery in 1991, 3 because of their special geometrical and electronic properties. Their electronic and transmission properties have been studied both experimentally [4][5][6][7][8] and theoretically. [9][10][11][12][13] In particular, from the theoretical point of view, the sensitivity of their electronic properties to their geometry makes them truly unique in offering the possibility of studying quantum transport in a very tunable environment.…”

Correlating electrical resistance to growth conditions for multiwalled carbon nanotubes

“…7 Although electrical transport in CNTs has been studied extensively, [8][9][10] a systematic electrical characterization of individual CNTs grown at different temperatures has not yet been reported. Typically, electrical characterization involves bundles of CNTs, [11][12][13] providing little information about the properties of individual CNTs. In what follows, we present resistance measurements of individual MWNTs randomly selected from MWNTs grown at 800, 900, and 950°C.…”

Tunable friction behavior of oriented carbon nanotube films

“…A sample of transversely orientated nanotubes was also prepared by mechanically removing the vertical MWNTs, sonicating in acetone and dispersing onto an identical quartz substrate. After drying, this transversely oriented nanotube film was found to be approximately 5 lm thick and was comprised of a distributed ensemble of entangled nanotubes oriented in plane with the quartz substrate (figure 1(e) and 1(f)).The mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties of individual nanotubes are highly anisotropic [14][15][16][17][18], and the frictional behavior was also recently found to be anisotropic [6]. These friction experiments used a countersurface made from a borosilicate glass pin (schematically shown in figure 2 (a)) and were run in a regime where wear was not observed.…”

“…The mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties of individual nanotubes are highly anisotropic [14][15][16][17][18], and the frictional behavior was also recently found to be anisotropic [6]. These friction experiments used a countersurface made from a borosilicate glass pin (schematically shown in figure 2 (a)) and were run in a regime where wear was not observed.…”