Intershell conductance in multiwall carbon nanotubes -: art. no. 075406

A computational study of the electron transport properties of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWNT's) is presented. The study is focused on the role of intershell interactions and the resistance associated with transport between neighboring shells. The tight-binding approximation is used to describe finite double-wall nanotubes [(10,10)@(5,5)] connected to two semi-infinite metallic leads. The current-voltage characteristics are calculated from the multichannel Landauer formula. When contact is made to the outer shell the calculations show that the current is distributed over both coaxial NT's but the overall resistance is independent if the inner tube is present or not. A device in which the leads are contacted to different coaxial shells of the MWNT (telescopic junction) is also investigated. The resistance of this system depends crucially on the extent of delocalization of the wave functions over several NT's.