Quantum interference in nanotube electron waveguides

We have calculated the quantum conductance of single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) waveguide by using a tight binding-based Green’s function approach. Our calculations show that the slow conductance oscillations as well as the fast conductance oscillations are manifestations of the intrinsic quantum interference properties of the conducting SWNTs, being independent of the defect and disorder of the SWNTs. And zigzag type tubes do not show the slow oscillations. The SWNT electron waveguide is also found to have distinctly different transport behavior depending on whether or not the length of the tube is commensurate with a (3N+1) rule, with N the number of basic carbon repeat units along the nanotube length. Copyright EDP Sciences/Società Italiana di Fisica/Springer-Verlag 2005