Electron transport in carbon nanotube shuttles and telescopes

Using a scattering technique, combined with density-functional theory, a computational study of the electron-transport properties of multiwall carbon nanotube (MWNT) telescopes and shuttles is presented. When the inner nanotube of a MWNT is displaced by an amount δx with respect to the outer tube, we predict that the interwall π-π coupling, γ_π-π, is significantly modified, leading to unexpected conductance oscillations for values of δx of the order of the interatomic spacing. An analytical model is presented, which provides a mapping between γ_π-π and electron-transport measurements.