Terahertz current oscillations in single-walled zigzag carbon nanotubes

We report time-dependent terahertz current oscillations on an n=10 single-walled zigzag carbon nanotube (CNT) that is 100 nm long. To obtain transport characteristics in this CNT, we developed an ensemble Monte Carlo (MC) simulator, which self-consistently calculates the electron transport and electrical potential. The ensemble MC simulations indicate that, under certain dc bias and doping conditions, the average electron velocity and concentration oscillate. This leads to current oscillations in space and time, on the tube, and at the contacts. We attribute this to accumulation and depletion of the CNT electrons at different locations on the tube, giving rise to low and high density electron regions. These local dipoles are a result of intra- and intersubband scatterings and different subband dispersion relations. This in turn forms propagating dipoles and current oscillations.