The role of self-heating and hot-phonons in metallic single walled carbon nanotubes

Abstract

The role of self-heating and hot-phonons on electronic transport in metallic single walled carbon nanotube is examined by solving a coupled electron-optical phonon (OP) Boltzmann transport equation and the classical heat equation. We find that self-heating reduces the high bias conductance, thus explaining the short OP mean free paths observed experimentally, while the non-equilibrium OP population reduces the overall current level. Comparison with experimental data shows that for tubes on a substrate, no significant population of hot phonons builds up under the normal range of applied bias. These results shed light on OP phonon decay paths in carbon nanotubes.