Effects of chirality and diameter on the transport properties of semiconducting carbon nanotubes

Abstract

The effects of chirality and diameter on the electron transport properties of semiconducting, single wall, carbon nanotubes are explored by the Ensemble Monte Carlo method and an iterative solution of the Boltzmann's transport equation. The results show that the effect of chirality is significant for small diameter tubes and becomes negligible at large diameters. The two zigzag carbon nanotube groups (+1 and -1) set upper and lower bounds for important low- and high-field transport parameters. This trend can be attributed to the band structure, especially to the effective mass of the lowest subband. The effect of diameter on the transport properties is stronger than those of chirality and group. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.