Luttinger liquid theory as a model of the gigahertz electrical properties of carbon nanotubes

• Published in: IEEE transactions on nanotechnology Vol. 1; no. 3; pp. 129 - 144
• Main Author: Burke, P.J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.09.2002; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Capacitance measurement; Carbon nanotubes; Contact resistance; Electronics; Electrostatic measurements; Exact sciences and technology; Excitation; Frequency; Impedance measurement; Inductance measurement; Kinetic theory; Liquids; Molecular electronics, nanoelectronics; Nanocomposites; Nanomaterials; Nanostructure; Plasmons; Quantum capacitance; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Solid modeling; GHz range; Complex impedance; Luttinger liquid; Frequency dependence; Transmission line; Nanotube; Collective mode; Carbon; Nanoelectronics; Spintronics
• ISSN: 1536-125X; 1941-0085
• DOI: 10.1109/TNANO.2002.806823

Presents a technique to directly excite Luttinger liquid collective modes in carbon nanotubes at gigahertz frequencies. By modeling the nanotube as a nano-transmission line with distributed kinetic and magnetic inductance as well as distributed quantum and electrostatic capacitance, we calculate the complex frequency-dependent impedance for a variety of measurement geometries. Exciting voltage waves on the nano-transmission line is equivalent to directly exciting the yet-to-be observed one-dimensional plasmons, the low energy excitation of a Luttinger liquid. Our technique has already been applied to two-dimensional plasmons and should work well for one-dimensional plasmons. Tubes of length 100 microns must be grown for gigahertz resonance frequencies. Ohmic contact is not necessary with our technique; capacitive contacts can work. Our modeling has applications in potentially terahertz nanotube transistors and RF nanospintronics.