2004/02/20 by S. M. Bose, S. Gayen, Bose, S. M. +1
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) #cond-mat.supr-con
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0402531
9 Pages, 3 Figures
arxiv created 2004/02/20 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
Recent investigations of superconductivity in carbon nanotubes have shown that a single-wall zigzag nanotube can become superconducting at around 15 K. Theoretical studies of superconductivity in nanotubes using the traditional phonon exchange model, however, give a superconducting transition temperature Tc less than 1K. To explain the observed higher critical temperature we explo re the possibility of the plasmon exchange mechanism for superconductivity in nanotubes. We first calculate the effective interaction between electrons in a nanotube mediated by plasmon exchange and show that this interaction can become attractive. Using this attractive interaction in the modified Eliashberg theory for strong coupling superconductors, we then calculate the critical temperature Tc in a nanotube. We find that Tc is sensitively dependent on the dielectric constant of the medium, the effective mass of the electrons an d the radius of the nanotube. Our theoretical results can explain the observed Tc in a nanotube.