Effective-Mass Theory of Carbon Nanotube Junctions

Abstract

Electronic states in junctions of nanotubes with different circumferences are studied in an effective-mass approximation. The junction is characterized by boundary conditions which mix wave functions associated with K and K' points. The wave functions obtained analytically at ε = 0 decay linearly with the distance from the thicker nanotube, showing that the conductance decays with the junction length in proportion to its third power.