Can electric field induced energy gaps in metallic carbon nanotubes?
- 25 June 2001
- journal article
- letter
- Published by IOP Publishing in Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter
- Vol. 13 (27), L635-L640
- https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-8984/13/27/104
Abstract
The low-energy electronic structure of a metallic single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) in an external electric field perpendicular to the tube axis is investigated. Based on tight-binding approximation, a field-induced energy gap is found in all (n,n) SWNTs, and the gap shows strong dependence on the electric field and the size of the tubes. d a metal-insulator transition is predicted for all (n,n) tubes. We numerically find a universal scaling that the gap is a function of the electric field and the radius of SWNTs, and the results are testified by the second-order perturbation theory in weak field limit. the range Our calculation shows the field required to induce a 0.1 eV gap in metallic SWNTs can be easily reached under the current experimental conditions. It indicates the possibility of applying nanotubes to electric signal-controlled nanoscale switching devices.Keywords
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