Thermoelectric Power of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

J. Hone; I. Ellwood; M. Muno; Ari Mizel; Marvin L. Cohen; A. Zettl; Andrew G. Rinzler; R. E. Smalley

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.1042

Thermoelectric Power of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

J. Hone, I. Ellwood, M. Muno, Ari Mizel, Marvin L. Cohen, A. Zettl, Andrew G. Rinzler, and R. E. Smalley

Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 1042 – Published 2 February 1998

Abstract

We have measured the temperature-dependent thermoelectric power (TEP) of crystalline ropes of single-walled carbon nanotubes. The TEP is large and holelike at high temperatures and approaches zero as $T \to 0$ . The results argue against the opening of a gap at low temperature in these materials. When derived from a simple band structure picture, the TEP of a single metallic nanotube is significantly lower than the measured TEP, strongly suggesting that the predicted electron-hole symmetry of metallic nanotubes is broken when the tubes self-assemble into ropes. Different models for the symmetry breaking are considered.

Received 19 June 1997

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.1042

Authors & Affiliations

J. Hone, I. Ellwood, M. Muno, Ari Mizel, Marvin L. Cohen, and A. Zettl

Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720,
and Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720

Andrew G. Rinzler and R. E. Smalley

Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, Rice Quantum Institute, Houston, Texas 77721,
and Departments of Chemistry and Physics, MS-100, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77721