Negative Differential Conductance and Hot Phonons in Suspended Nanotube Molecular Wires

2005/06/30 by Eric Pop, David J. Mann, David Mann +5 · 9 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Carbon Nanotubes in Composites #Graphene research and applications #Thermal properties of materials #cond-mat.mes-hall

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.95.155505

PRL, in press

arxiv created 2005/08/31 · openalex publication_date 2005/10/07 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Freely suspended metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) exhibit reduced current carrying ability compared to those lying on substrates, and striking negative differential conductance at low electric fields. Theoretical analysis reveals significant self-heating effects including electron scattering by hot nonequilibrium optical phonons. Electron transport characteristics under strong self-heating are exploited for the first time to probe the thermal conductivity of individual SWNTs (\ensuremath∼3600 W m^\ensuremath-1 K^\ensuremath-1 at T=300 K) up to \ensuremath∼700 K, and reveal a 1/T dependence expected for umklapp phonon scattering at high temperatures.

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