2D light bullets in a Bragg medium with a harmonically modulated refractive index and carbon nanotubes

The propagation of extremely short 2D pulses (light bullets) through a Bragg medium with a harmonically modulated refractive index and carbon nanotubes is studied theoretically. Propagation is found to be stable. It is shown that these pulses carry information about the Bragg grating.     

Light conduction of metallic two-walled carbon nanotubes

The properties of surface plasmon–polariton modes in metallic two-walled carbon nanotubes are studied, taking into account the retardation effects. The dispersion relation of surface waves is obtained, by solving Maxwell and hydrodynamic equations with appropriate boundary conditions. Numerical results show that the difference between plasmon and plasmon–polariton modes is strongly dependent on the inner-outer radii of the system but only in the long-wavelength cases.     

Two-dimensional light bullets in an array of carbon nanotubes

The problem of the propagation of two-dimensional solitary electromagnetic waves in an array of carbon nanotubes has been considered. The electromagnetic field and the electron system of carbon nanotubes have been treated on the basis of the Maxwell’s equations and the Boltzmann kinetic equation in the relaxation-time approximation, respectively. The derived effective equation has been analyzed and the state of the electromagnetic field that is localized in two spatial dimensions has been found.     

Light bullet passing an array of carbon nanotubes with metallic mesh irregularities

We consider the propagation of 2D solitary electromagnetic waves and their scattering on a lattice of metallic inhomogeneities in the system of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The electromagnetic field is considered on the basis of Maxwell equations, and the electronic system of carbon nanotubes is treated by the Boltzmann equation in relaxation time approximation. We numerically analyze the derived effective equation and reveal an increase of spectral composition of the last electromagnetic wave. Some possible practical applications of the discovered effect are discussed.     

Electrical switching in metallic carbon nanotubes

We present first-principles calculations of quantum transport which show that the resistance of metallic carbon nanotubes can be changed dramatically with homogeneous transverse electric fields if the nanotubes have impurities or defects. The change of the resistance is predicted to range over more than 2 orders of magnitude with experimentally attainable electric fields. This novel property has its origin that backscattering of conduction electrons by impurities or defects in the nanotubes is strongly dependent on the strength and/or direction of the applied electric fields. We expect this property to open a path to new device applications of metallic carbon nanotubes.     

Many-body effects in finite metallic carbon nanotubes

The nonhomogeneity of the charge distribution in a carbon nanotube leads to the formation of an excitonic resonance, in a way similar to the one observed in x-ray absorption in metals. As a result, a positive anomaly at low bias appears in the tunneling density of states. This effect depends on the screening of the electron-electron interactions by metallic gates, and it modifies the coupling of the nanotube to normal and superconducting electrodes.     

NMR relaxation rate in metallic carbon nanotubes

NMR relaxation rate, T₁⁻¹, of the metallic carbon nanotube is discussed based on Tomonaga–Luttinger-liquid theory. It is found that the Coulomb interaction leads to increase of (T₁T)⁻¹ by a power law with decreasing temperature, T. The dependence on temperature of (T₁T)⁻¹ in the multi-wall nanotube (MWNT) is shown to be strongly suppressed by existence of the metallic shells in the MWNTs.     

dc Josephson effect in metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes

The dc Josephson effect is investigated in a single-walled metallic carbon nanotube connected to two superconducting leads. In particular, by using the Luttinger liquid theory, we analyze the effects of the electron-electron interaction on the supercurrent. We find that in the long junction limit the strong electronic correlations of the nanotube, together with its peculiar band structure, induce oscillations in the critical current as a function of the junction length and/or the nanotube electron filling. These oscillations represent a signature of the Luttinger liquid physics of the nanotube, for they are absent if the interaction is vanishing. We show that this effect can be exploited to reverse the sign of the supercurrent, realizing a tunable π-junction.     

Electronic structure in finite-length deformed metallic carbon nanotubes

Using the -band tight-binding (TB) model and the quantum box boundary condition, we have discussed how both of the applied strain and finite-length affect the energy bands of metallic carbon nanotubes (CNTs). It is found that, for finite-length CNTs, energy gap for the armchair tube under uniaxial strain and metallic zigzag tube under torsional strain will oscillate with increasing strain, which do not exist in the case of infinite-length CNTs, and will be able to be observed by experiments in future.     

Dust acoustic wave oscillations in metallic carbon nanotubes

We present theoretical analysis of plasmon dispersion in single-walled metallic carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) in the presence of low-frequency electromagnetic radiation, based on classical electrodynamic formulations and linearized hydrodynamic model. We assume that metallic carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are charged due to the field emission, and hence the metallic nanotubes can be regarded as charged dust rods surrounded by degenerate electrons and ions. Calculations are performed for the transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) waves, respectively, by solving the Maxwell and hydrodynamic equations with appropriate boundary conditions.     

Optical light bullets in a pure Kerr medium

We show that small negative fourth-order dispersion can arrest spatiotemporal collapse of ultrashort pulses with anomalous dispersion in a planar waveguide with pure Kerr nonlinearity, resulting in (2 + 1)D optical bullets. Similarly to solitons, these bullets undergo elastic collisions. Since these bullets can self-trap from noisy Gaussian input beams and propagate without any power losses, this result may be used to realize experimentally stable, nondissipative optical bullets.     

Observation of electronic Raman scattering in metallic carbon nanotubes

We present experimental measurements of the electronic contribution to the Raman spectra of individual metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes (MSWNTs). Photoexcited carriers are inelastically scattered by a continuum of low-energy electron-hole pairs created across the graphenelike linear electronic subbands of the MSWNTs. The optical resonances in MSWNTs give rise to well-defined electronic Raman peaks. This resonant electronic Raman scattering is a unique feature of the electronic structure of these one-dimensional quasimetals.     

Nonlinear transport and heat dissipation in metallic carbon nanotubes

We show that the local temperature dependence of thermalized electron and phonon populations along metallic carbon nanotubes is the main reason behind the nonlinear transport characteristics in the high bias regime. Our model is based on the solution of the Boltzmann transport equation considering both optical and zone boundary phonon emission as well as absorption by charge carriers. It also assumes a local temperature along the nanotube, determined self-consistently with the heat transport equation. By using realistic transport parameters, our results not only reproduce experimental data for electronic transport but also provide a coherent interpretation of thermal breakdown under electric stress. In particular, electron and phonon thermalization prohibits ballistic transport in short nanotubes.     

Observation of excitons in one-dimensional metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes

Excitons are generally believed not to exist in metals because of strong screening by free carriers. Here we demonstrate that excitonic states can in fact be produced in metallic systems of a one-dimensional character. Using metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes as a model system, we show both experimentally and theoretically that electron-hole pairs form tightly bound excitons. The exciton binding energy of 50 meV, deduced from optical absorption spectra of individual metallic nanotubes, significantly exceeds that of excitons in most bulk semiconductors and agrees well with ab initio theoretical predictions.     

Scattering cross section of metallic two-walled carbon nanotubes

The electromagnetic wave scattering from a metallic two-walled carbon nanotube is studied. The system is assumed to be illuminated by either a transverse magnetic or a transverse electric wave. Boundary-value method is used to evaluate the scattering characteristics of the system. Electronic excitations of each wall of nanotube are modeled as an infinitesimally thin cylindrical layer of the free-electron gas described previously by means of the linearized fluid theory. The computed results include the evaluation of the normalized scattering width of both transverse magnetic and transverse electric uniform plane wave by system at normal incidences.     

Electronic transport properties of metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes

We have calculated the differential conductance of metallic carbon nanotubes by the scatter matrix methon.It is found that the differential conductance of metallic nanotube-based devices oscillates as a function of the bias voltage between the two leads and the gate voltage.Oscillation period T is directly proportional to the reciprocal of nanotube length.In addition,we found that electronic transport properties are sensitive to variation of the length of the nanotube.     

Nonlinear conductance reveals positions of carbon atoms in metallic single-wall carbon nanotubes

Nonlinear quantum conductance in finite metallic single-wall carbon nanotubes due to presence of a single defect has been studied theoretically using π-orbital tight-binding model. The correction to the conductance induced by defects is sensitively dependent on wavefunction amplitudes of contributing electronic states. It has been shown that by calculating this correction to the first order, we can delineate the position of carbon atoms on tubular surface. It can also be used to specify the SWCNT at hand and its level spacing.     

Titanium-decorated carbon nanotubes as a potential high-capacity hydrogen storage medium

We report a first-principles study, which demonstrates that a single Ti atom coated on a single-walled nanotube (SWNT) binds up to four hydrogen molecules. The first H2 adsorption is dissociative with no energy barrier while the other three adsorptions are molecular with significantly elongated H-H bonds. At high Ti coverage we show that a SWNT can strongly adsorb up to 8 wt % hydrogen. These results advance our fundamental understanding of dissociative adsorption of hydrogen in nanostructures and suggest new routes to better storage and catalyst materials.     

Shell filling and exchange coupling in metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes

We report the characterization of electronic shell filling in metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes by low-temperature transport measurements. Nanotube quantum dots with average conductance approximately (1-2)e(2)/h exhibit a distinct four-electron periodicity for electron addition as well as signatures of Kondo and inelastic cotunneling. The Hartree-Fock parameters that govern the electronic structure of metallic nanotubes are determined from the analysis of transport data using a shell-filling model that incorporates the nanotube band structure and Coulomb and exchange interactions.     

NMR evidence for gapped spin excitations in metallic carbon nanotubes

We report on the spin dynamics of 13C isotope enriched inner walls in double-wall carbon nanotubes using 13C nuclear magnetic resonance. Contrary to expectations, we find that our data set implies that the spin-lattice relaxation time (T1) has the same temperature (T) and magnetic field (H) dependence for most of the inner-wall nanotubes detected by NMR. In the high-temperature regime (T approximately > or = 150 K), we find that the T and H dependence of 1/T1T is consistent with a 1D metallic chain. For T approximately < or = 150 K we find a significant increase in 1/T1T with decreasing T, followed by a sharp drop below approximately = 20 K. The data clearly indicate the formation of a gap in the spin excitation spectrum, where the gap value 2delta approximately = 40 K (congruent to 3.7 meV) is H independent.