Electrical resistance of a carbon nanotube bundle

Abstract

The first direct electrical resistance measurements performed on a single carbon nanotube bundle from room temperature down to 0.3 K and in magnetic fields up to 14 T are reported. From the temperature dependence of the resistance above 2 K, it is shown that some nanotubes exhibit a semimetallic behavior akin to rolled graphene sheets with a similar band structure, except that the band overlap, Δ ≈ 3.7 meV, is about 10 times smaller than for crystalline graphite. In contrast to graphite which shows a constant low-temperature resistivity, the nanotubes exhibit a striking increase of the resistance followed by a broad maximum at very low temperatures. A magnetic field applied perpendicular to the sample axis decreases the resistance. Above 1 K, this behavior is consistent with the formation of Landau levels. At lower temperatures, the resistance shows an unexpected drop at a critical temperature which increases linearly with magnetic field. These striking features could be related to the unique quasi-one-dimensional structure of the carbon nanotubes.