1998/12/14 by M. Bockrath, D. H. Cobden, J. Lu +4 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/17569
arxiv created 1998/12/14 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30
An interacting one-dimensional (1D) electron system is predicted to behave very differently than its higher-dimensional counterparts. Coulomb interactions strongly modify the properties away from those of a Fermi liquid, resulting in a Luttinger liquid (LL) characterized by a power-law vanishing of the density of states at the Fermi level. Experiments on one-dimensional semiconductor wires and fractional quantum Hall conductors have been interpreted using this picture, but questions remain about the connection between theory and experiment. Recently, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have emerged as a new type of 1D conductor that may exhibit LL behavior. Here we present measurements of the conductance of individual ropes of such SWNTs as a function of temperature and voltage. Power law behavior as a function of temperature or bias voltage is observed: G~ Ta and dI/dV ~ Va. Both the power-law functional forms and the inferred exponents are in good agreement with theoretical predictions for tunneling into a LL.