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Freely suspended metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) exhibit reduced current carrying ability compared to those lying on substrates, and striking negative differential conductance at low electric fields. Theoretical analysis reveals significant self-heating effects including electron scattering by hot nonequilibrium optical phonons. Electron transport characteristics under strong self-heating are exploited for the first time to probe the thermal conductivity of individual SWNTs (3600 W m^-1 K^-1 at T=300 K) up to 700 K, and reveal a 1/T dependence expected for umklapp phonon scattering at high temperatures.
Pop et al. (Fri,) studied this question.