Ballistic Phonon Thermal Transport in Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes

H.-Y. Chiu, V. V. Deshpande, H. W. Ch. Postma, C. N. Lau, C. Mikó, L. Forró, and M. Bockrath

Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 226101 – Published 21 November 2005

Abstract

We report electrical transport experiments, using the phenomenon of electrical breakdown to perform thermometry, that probe the thermal properties of individual multiwalled carbon nanotubes. Our results show that nanotubes can readily conduct heat by ballistic phonon propagation. We determine the thermal conductance quantum, the ultimate limit to thermal conductance for a single phonon channel, and find good agreement with theoretical calculations. Moreover, our results suggest a breakdown mechanism of thermally activated C-C bond breaking coupled with the electrical stress of carrying $\sim 10^{12} A / m^{2}$ . We also demonstrate a current-driven self-heating technique to improve the conductance of nanotube devices dramatically.

Received 6 July 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.226101

Authors & Affiliations

H.-Y. Chiu¹, V. V. Deshpande¹, H. W. Ch. Postma¹, C. N. Lau², C. Mikó³, L. Forró³, and M. Bockrath^1,*

¹Department of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
²Department of Physics, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA
³IPMC/SB, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne-EPFL, Switzerland

^*To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email address: mwb@caltech.edu

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Vol. 95, Iss. 22 — 25 November 2005

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