Low Bias Electron Scattering in Structure-Identified Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes: Role of Substrate Polar Phonons

Bhupesh Chandra, Vasili Perebeinos, Stéphane Berciaud, Jyoti Katoch, Masa Ishigami, Philip Kim, Tony F. Heinz, and James Hone

Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 146601 – Published 28 September 2011

Abstract

We have performed temperature-dependent electrical transport measurements on known structure single wall carbon nanotubes at low bias. The experiments show a superlinear increase in nanotube resistivity with temperature, which is in contradiction with the linear dependence expected from nanotube acoustic-phonon scattering. The measured electron mean free path is also much lower than expected, especially at medium to high temperatures ( $> 100 K$ ). A theoretical model that includes scattering due to surface polar phonon modes of the substrates reproduces the experiments very well. The role of surface phonons is further confirmed by resistivity measurements of nanotubes on aluminum nitride.

Received 25 March 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.146601

Authors & Affiliations

Bhupesh Chandra^2,1,*, Vasili Perebeinos², Stéphane Berciaud^3,5, Jyoti Katoch⁴, Masa Ishigami⁴, Philip Kim³, Tony F. Heinz³, and James Hone¹

¹Department of Mechanical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA
²IBM Research Division, T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598, USA
³Department of Physics and Electrical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA
⁴Department of Physics and Nanoscience Technology Center, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida 32816, USA
⁵IPCMS (UMR 7504), CNRS and Université de Strasbourg, F-67034 Strasbourg, France