Boltzmann Transport Simulation of Electron Transport in Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Zlatan Aksamija, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Photo of Zlatan Aksamija

This works treats electron transport in single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) in the Boltzmann Transport equation (BTE) formalism. The BTE is solved self-consistently with the Poisson equation and iterated in time using an upwinding finite-difference scheme until a steady-state is reached. Phonon scattering is included in the relaxation time approximation. Current-voltage characteristics of small-diameter metallic nanotubes are explored with lengths ranging from 50nm up to one micron. Current-voltage results show saturation at high bias near the value of 25µA. Resistance of the tubes is shown to scale linearly with their length in the low bias regime with a slope of 80kΩ/µm.

Abstract Author(s): Zlatan Aksamija and Umberto Ravaioli