arXiv · 0808.1148
Avalanche-Induced Current Enhancement in Semiconducting Carbon Nanotubes
Abstract
Semiconducting carbon nanotubes under high electric field stress (~10 V/um) display a striking, exponential current increase due to avalanche generation of free electrons and holes. Unlike in other materials, the avalanche process in such 1D quantum wires involves access to the third sub-band, is insensitive to temperature, but strongly dependent on diameter ~exp(-1/d^2). Comparison with a theoretical model yields a novel approach to obtain the inelastic optical phonon emission length, L_OP,ems ~ 15d nm. The combined results underscore the importance of multi-band transport in 1D molecular wires.
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Albert Liao, Yang Zhao, Eric Pop. 2008-08-14. Avalanche-Induced Current Enhancement in Semiconducting Carbon Nanotubes. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.101.256804
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