On the current delivery limit of semiconducting carbon nanotubes

Abstract

The current carrying capacity of single-walled semiconducting carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is studied by self-consistent quantum simulations using the non-equilibrium Green’s function formalism with the self-consistent Born approximation. The simulation shows that the current carrying capacity depends on the bias regime and is drastically different from that of metallic tubes. For long CNTs (with a length much longer than zone boundary and optical phonon scattering mean free path), the current saturates around 20 μA in the forward bias regime with unipolar transport due to phonon scattering. In ambipolar transport regime, the current delivery limit is still about 20 μA due to recombination of electron and hole currents. In contrast, for short semiconducting CNTs, the current delivery capacity can be above 25 μA in the unipolar transport regime and further double in the ambipolar transport regime. In reverse bias regime, the current of a long CNT can exceed 20 μA due to the second subband conduction and increased electron injection from the drain. The simulation provides a coherent explanation to the dependence of current delivery limit on bias regime and channel length, which is consistent with recent experiments.