One-Dimensional Energy Dispersion of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes by Resonant Electron Scattering

Abstract

We characterized the energy band dispersion near the Fermi level in single-walled carbon nanotubes using low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy. Analysis of energy dependent standing wave oscillations, which result from quantum interference of electrons resonantly scattered by defects, yield a linear energy dispersion near EF, and indicate the importance of parity in scattering for armchair single-walled carbon nanotubes. Additionally, these data provide values of the tight-binding overlap integral and Fermi wavevector in good agreement with previous work, but indicate that the electron coherence length is substantially shortened.