Cotunneling and one-dimensional localization in individual single-wall carbon nanotubes

Abstract

We report on the temperature dependence of the intrinsic resistance of long individual disordered single-wall carbon nanotubes. The resistance grows dramatically as the temperature is reduced, and the functional form is consistent with an activated behavior. These results are described by Coulomb blockade along a series of quantum dots. We occasionally observe a kink in the activated behavior that reflects the change of the activation energy as the temperature range is changed. This is attributed to charge hopping events between non-adjacent quantum dots, which is possible through cotunneling processes.