Transport in a metallic nanotube at finite temperature

We consider the effect of thermal phonon displacements on the coherent transport in carbon nanotubes. The atomic displacements are generated using tight-binding molecular dynamics simulations, and the conductances are computed using a nonequilibrium Green’s function technique. Atomic displacements due to lattice vibrations lead to different levels of conductance reduction and fluctuation on the massive and massless bands of a metallic nanotube. Different conduction regimes are studied by examining the resistance on different length scales. The temperature-induced displacements have a significant impact on the ballistic or diffusive transport in carbon nanotube.