AVS 50th International Symposium
    Nanotubes Wednesday Sessions
       Session NT-WeA

Paper NT-WeA9
Photocurrents in Nanotube Junctions

Wednesday, November 5, 2003, 4:40 pm, Room 317

Session: Properties of Carbon Nanotubes
Presenter: F. Léonard, Sandia National Laboratories
Authors: D.A. Stewart, Sandia National Laboratories
F. Léonard, Sandia National Laboratories
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Carbon nanotubes have demonstrated great promise for future nano-electronic devices. However, their potential for opto-electronic applications has received much less attention, despite their seemingly ideal properties, such as a direct band-gap, quasi-one-dimensional density of states, low defect density and a high surface-to-volume ratio. In this talk, we present calculations of photocurrents in nanotube junctions using a non-equilibrium quantum transport theory. The dependence of the short-circuit photocurrent on incoming photon energy shows many fatures, due to band-to-band transitions and photon-assisted tunneling. The operation of such devices in the ballistic transport regime leads to unusual size effects.