Spatial Dependence of Electron Interactions in Carbon Nanotubes

Nicholas Bronn, Nadya Mason

Published 2013-06-20, updated 2013-10-10Version 2

We report measurements of the spatial dependence of the electron energy distribution in carbon nanotubes, from which electron interactions are determined. Using nonequilibrium tunneling spectroscopy with multiple superconducting probes, we characterize electron transport as ballistic or diffusive, and interactions as elastic or inelastic. We find that transport in nanotubes is generally diffusive, caused by elastic scattering from a few defects. However, local inelastic scattering can be tuned `on' or `off' with a gate voltage.