Giant magneto-conductance in twisted carbon nanotubes.pdfVIP

a r X i v : c o n d - m a t / 0 2 0 2 3 9 8 v 1 [ c o n d - m a t .m e s - h a l l ] 2 2 F e b 2 0 0 2 Printed on February 1, 2008 Giant magneto-conductance in twisted carbon nanotubes Steven W.D. Bailey1, David Toma?nek,2 Young-Kyun Kwon,2,a and Colin J. Lambert1 1 Department of Physics, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YB, UK 2 Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Center for Fundamental Materials Research, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1116 (Received 22 January 2001) Abstract Using the Landauer-Bu?ttiker formalism, we calculate the effect of structural twist on electron transport in conducting carbon nanotubes. We demonstrate that even a localized region of twist scatters the propagating π electrons and induces the opening of a (pseudo-) gap near the Fermi level. The subsequent conductance reduction may be compensated by an applied axial magnetic field, leading to a twist-induced, giant positive magneto-conductance in clean armchair nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes [1–3] exhibit a range of unusual electronic properties associated with the morphology of these quasi-1D structures. Early one-electron theories successfully as- sociated metallic or semiconducting behaviour with the chiral vector that characterizes a given nanotube [4–6]. Further studies addressed the effect of atomic-level impurities [7–10] and inter-tube interactions [11–14] on electrical conductance, or magneto-transport [7,16,15,17,18]. In parallel with the development of such one-electron theories, intensive studies of electron-electron correlations have been undertaken. Indeed, nonlinear current- voltage (I ? V ) characteristics have recently been observed [19], which are reminiscent of Luttinger liquid behaviour. An intriguing question remains however, namely whether other effects may augment or even dominate such nonlinearities in the transport properties of 1 nanotubes. In this letter we predict that scattering of electrons from twistons may give rise to st