Nanoelectromechanical coupling in fullerene peapods probed via resonant electrical transport experiments

Abstract

Fullerene peapods, that is carbon nanotubes encapsulating fullerene molecules, can offer enhanced functionality with respect to empty nanotubes. However, the present incomplete understanding of how a nanotube is affected by entrapped fullerenes is an obstacle for peapods to reach their full potential in nanoscale electronic applications. Here, we investigate the effect of C60 fullerenes on electron transport via peapod quantum dots. Compared to empty nanotubes, we find an abnormal temperature dependence of Coulomb blockade oscillations, indicating the presence of a nanoelectromechanical coupling between electronic states of the nanotube and mechanical vibrations of the fullerenes. This provides a method to detect the C60 presence and to probe the interplay between electrical and mechanical excitations in peapods, which thus emerge as a new class of nanoelectromechanical systems.

7 pages, 3 figures. Published in Nature Communications. Free online access to the published version until Sept 30th, 2010, see http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v1/n4/abs/ncomms1034.html

References in corpus (10)

• Kondo Physics in a Single Electron Transistor
• Molecular Transport Junctions: Vibrational Effects
• Franck-Condon blockade and giant Fano factors in transport through single molecules
• Franck-Condon blockade in suspended carbon nanotube quantum dots
• Tunneling in suspended carbon nanotubes assisted by longitudinal phonons
• Towards a fullerene-based quantum computer
• Vibrational absorption sidebands in the Coulomb blockade regime of single-molecule transistors
• Transport via coupled states in a C60 peapod quantum dot
• Transport Properties of Carbon Nanotube C${}_{60}$ Peapods
• The Influence of Electro-Mechanical Effects on Resonant Electron Tunneling Through Small Carbon Nano-Peapods

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• Current-induced forces in single-resonance systems
• Amplification phenomena of Casimir force fluctuations on close scatterers coupled via a coherent fermionic fluid
• Interplay of Vibration and Coulomb Effects in Transport of Spin-Polarized Electrons in a Single-Molecule Transistor
• Polaronic effects induced by non-equilibrium vibrons in a single-molecule transistor
• Thermoelectric effects in tunneling of spin-polarized electrons in a molecular transistor