Abstract
Carbon nanotubes and graphene are candidate materials for nanoscale electronic devices1,2. Both materials show weak acoustic phonon scattering and long mean free paths for low-energy charge carriers. However, high-energy carriers couple strongly to optical phonons1,3, which leads to current saturation4,5,6 and the generation of hot phonons7. A non-equilibrium phonon distribution has been invoked to explain the negative differential conductance observed in suspended metallic nanotubes8, while Raman studies have shown the electrical generation of hot G-phonons in metallic nanotubes9,10. Here, we present a complete picture of the phonon distribution in a functioning nanotube transistor including the G and the radial breathing modes, the Raman-inactive zone boundary K mode and the intermediate-frequency mode populated by anharmonic decay. The effective temperatures of the high- and intermediate-frequency phonons are considerably higher than those of acoustic phonons, indicating a phonon-decay bottleneck. Most importantly, inclusion of scattering by substrate polar phonons is needed to fully account for the observed electronic transport behaviour.
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Steiner, M., Freitag, M., Perebeinos, V. et al. Phonon populations and electrical power dissipation in carbon nanotube transistors. Nature Nanotech 4, 320–324 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2009.22
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2009.22
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