Transport theory of carbon nanotube Y junctions

Abstract

We describe a generalization of Landauer-Büttiker theory for networks of interacting metallic carbon nanotubes. We start with symmetric starlike junctions and then extend our approach to asymmetric systems. While the symmetric case is solved in closed form, the asymmetric situation is treated by a mixture of perturbative and non-perturbative methods. For N > 2 repulsively interacting nanotubes, the only stable fixed point of the symmetric system corresponds to an isolated node. Detailed results for both symmetric and asymmetric systems are shown for N = 3, corresponding to carbon nanotube Y junctions.