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Comparison of electron and phonon transport in disordered semiconductor carbon nanotubes

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Abstract

Charge and thermal conductivities are the most important parameters of carbon nanomaterials as candidates for future electronics. In this paper we address the effects of Anderson type disorder in long semiconductor carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to electron charge conductivity and lattice thermal conductivity using the atomistic Green function approach. The electron and phonon transmissions are analyzed as a function of the length of the disordered nanostructures. The thermal conductance as a function of temperature is calculated for different lengths. Analysis of the transmission probabilities as a function of length of the disordered device shows that both electrons and phonons with different energies display different transport regimes, i.e. quasi-ballistic, diffusive and localization regimes coexist. In the light of the results we discuss heating of the semiconductor device in electronic applications.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge fruitful discussion with R. Gutierrez. This work was supported by the European Union project “Carbon nanotube devices at the quantum limit” (CARDEQ) under contract No. IST-021285-2, by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft within the priority program “Nanostructured Thermoelectrics” (Grant No. SPP 1386) and from the German Excellence Initiative via the Cluster of Excellence 1056 “Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden” (cfAED). Computing time provided by the ZIH at the Dresden University of Technology is acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Materials Science and Max Bergmann Center of Biomaterials, Dresden University of Technology, 01062, Dresden, Germany

    H. Sevinçli, T. Lehmann, D. A. Ryndyk & G. Cuniberti

  2. Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden, TU Dresden, 01062, Dresden, Germany

    D. A. Ryndyk & G. Cuniberti

  3. Department of Micro- and Nanotechnology (DTU Nanotech), Technical University of Denmark, 2800, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark

    H. Sevinçli

  4. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Izmir Institute of Technology, 35430, Izmir, Turkey

    H. Sevinçli

  5. Dresden Center for Computational Materials Science, TU Dresden, 01062, Dresden, Germany

    D. A. Ryndyk & G. Cuniberti

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  1. H. Sevinçli
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Correspondence to H. Sevinçli.

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Sevinçli, H., Lehmann, T., Ryndyk, D.A. et al. Comparison of electron and phonon transport in disordered semiconductor carbon nanotubes. J Comput Electron 12, 685–691 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10825-013-0539-7

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