Mechanically controllable conductance in carbon nanotube based nanowires

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are considered to be promising candidates for fabricating nanowires, due to their stable quasi-one-dimensional structure. Controlling the electronic transport properties is one of the most vital issues for molecular nanowires. Herein, using density functional theory combined with nonequilibrium Green's function method, we systematically investigate the current evolution of (4, 4) single-walled CNT based nanowires in squashing processes. When the CNTs are squashed by applying different pressure along the radial direction, a negative correlation can be found between the electrical conductance of the nanowire and the pressure. Besides, the response of the nano junction current to pressure is influenced by the squashing direction. Not only does the geometric structure show symmetry breaking in the specific squashing direction, which causes the CNT electrodes to change from conductors to semiconductors, but also obvious π stacking behavior can be witnessed in this squashing direction. More intriguingly, because the current of the nano junction can be completely cut off by squashing the CNTs, a significant switching behavior with the on/off ratio of up to 10³ is obtained at low bias voltages. The underlying mechanisms for these phenomena are revealed by the analysis of the band structures, transmission spectra, frontier molecular orbitals and transmission pathways. These electronic transport properties make CNT a promising candidate for realizing conductance controllable nano devices.