Electron-electron interaction in carbon nanostructures

Abstract

The electron-electron interaction in carbon nanostructures was studied. A new method which allows to determine the electron-electron interaction constant ${\lambda }_c$ from the analysis of quantum correction to the magnetic susceptibility and the magnetoresistance was developed. Three types of carbon materials: arc-produced multiwalled carbon nanotubes (arc-MWNTs), CVD-produced catalytic multiwalled carbon nanotubes (c-MWNTs) and pyrolytic carbon were used for investigation. We found that ${\lambda }_c$=0.2 for arc-MWNTs (before and after bromination treatment); ${\lambda }_c$ = 0.1 for pyrolytic graphite; ${\lambda }_c>$ 0 for c-MWNTs. We conclude that the curvature of graphene layers in carbon nanostructures leads to the increase of the electron-electron interaction constant ${\lambda }_c$.

12 pages, 18 figures, to be published in the Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Electron Correlation in New Materials and Nanosystems, NATO Science Series II, Springer, 2006