Electron transport through carbon nanotube intramolecular heterojunctions with peptide linkages

Abstract

We present a systematic analysis of electron transport characteristics of carbon nanotube (CNT) intramolecular heterojunctions with peptide linkages, MM, SS, SM1, and SM2 where M and S stand for metallic and semiconducting CNT electrodes, respectively. Our theoretical investigations show that the incorporation of peptide linkages and their associated dipole moments play an important role in determining the electron transport characteristics and lead to materials with unique properties, such as Schottky-like behavior. Furthermore, we show that the Schottky-like behavior is observed in our SM1 junction but not in the SM2 junction because of the different effects that arise from both the direction and strength of their dipole moments. We believe that our results will pave the way towards the design and implementation of various electronic logic functions based on carbon nanotubes for applications in the field of nanoelectronics.