Abstract

Here we address a theoretical study on the behavior of electronic states of heterojunctions and quantum dots based on carbon nanotubes under magnetic fields. Emphasis is put on the analysis of the local density of states, the conductance, and on the characteristic curves of current voltage. The heterostructures are modeled by joining zigzag tubes through single pentagon-heptagon pair defects, and described within a simple tight-binding calculation. The conductance is calculated using the Landauer formula in the Green-functions formalism. The theoretical approach used incorporates the atomic details of the topological defects by performing an energy relaxation via Monte Carlo calculation. The effect of a magnetic field on the conductance gap of the system is investigated and compared to those of isolated constituent tubes. It is found that the conductance gap of the studied carbon nanotube heterostructure exhibits oscillations as a function of the magnetic flux. However, unlike the pristine tubes case, they are not Aharonov-Bohm periodic oscillations. © 2007 The American Physical Society.