2017/12/28 by Yotam Perlitz, Karen Michaeli · 8 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic physics #Carbon Nanotubes in Composites #Carbon nanobud #Carbon nanotube #Carbon nanotube actuators #Carbon nanotube quantum dot #Chemical physics #Condensed matter physics #Electron #Graphene research and applications #Helicity #Materials science #Molecular physics #Molecule #Nanotechnology #Nanotube #Optical properties of carbon nanotubes #Physics #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum mechanics #Spin (aerodynamics) #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.98.195405
published in Physical review. B./Physical review. B 98(19) (American Physical Society) · 9 pages, 9 figures
arxiv created 2017/12/28 · openalex publication_date 2018/11/06 · arxiv updated 2018/11/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The measured electric resistance of carbon nanotubes wrapped with DNA molecules depends strongly on the spin of the injected electrons. Motivated by these experiments, we study the effect of helix-shaped potentials on the electronic spectrum of carbon nanotubes. We find that in combination with the curvature-induced spin-orbit coupling inherent to nanotubes, such a perturbation opens helicity-dependent gaps. Within these partial gaps, left-moving electrons carry a fixed spin-projection that is reversed for right-moving electrons, and the probability of electrons to transfer through the nanotube correlates with their helicity. We explain the origin of this effect and show that it can alternatively be induced by twisting the nanotube. Our findings suggest that carbon nanotubes hold great potential for implementing spin filters and may form an ideal platform to study the physical properties of one-dimensional helical liquids.