Current-carrying capacity of double-wall carbon nanotubes

Abstract

We have studied electrical transport characteristics of individual double-wall carbon nanotubes ( DWNT) under high bias voltages. As the bias voltage applied to the carbon nanotubes increases, the outermost shell of the DWNTs broke down sequentially, which enabled us to determine the current-carrying capacity of each shell. The maximum current-carrying capacity per shell was about 150 mu A, which is well above that of any other previous reports.