Intrinsic electron transport properties of carbon nanotube Y-junctions

Abstract

The electron transport properties of three-terminal carbon-nanotube junctions are investigated within the Landauer theory of quantum conductance. Using a realistic tight-binding Hamiltonian, we demonstrate that the experimentally observed rectifying behavior is not an intrinsic property of the junction, but rather of the contact geometry. When semiconducting nanotubes are connected to metallic leads, nontransmitting states are induced at the nanotube–metal interface, leading to asymmetric transmission curves and potentially rectifying behavior of the nanodevice.