Temperature Dependent Resistivity of Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes

Nonchiral single wall carbon nanotubes with an "armchair" wrapping are theoretically predicted to be conducting, and high purity samples consisting predominantly of these tubes exhibit metallic behavior with an intrinsic resistivity which increases approximately linearly with temperature over a wide temperature range. Here we study the coupling of the conduction electrons to long wavelength torsional shape fluctuations, or twistons. A one dimensional theory of the scattering of electrons by twistons is presented which predicts an intrinsic resistivity proportional to the absolute temperature. Experimental measurements of the temperature dependence of the resistivity are reported and compared with the predictions of the twiston theory.