The electronic behavior of metallic carbon nanotubes under the influence of atomistic vacancy defects present in the channel is theoretically investigated using non-equilibrium Green’s function method self-consistently coupled with three-dimensional electrostatics. A nearest neighbor tight binding model based on a single pz orbital is used for the device Hamiltonian. A single vacancy defect in the channel of a small diameter metallic carbon nanotube can decrease its conductance by a factor of 2. More than one vacancy in the channel can further drastically decrease the conductance. Larger diameter nanotubes suffer less from the presence of vacancy defects.

Topics
Tight-binding model, Crystallographic defects, Electronic transport, Localized states, Transport properties, Field effect transistors, Current-voltage characteristic, Carbon based materials, Nanotubes, Green-functions technique
© 2007 American Institute of Physics.
2007
American Institute of Physics
You do not currently have access to this content.