Mechanical deformations and coherent transport in carbon nanotubes

We have investigated the conductance of carbon nanotubes under mechanical distortions likely to occur when forming nanoscale electronic devices. Using a realistic tight-binding Hamiltonian, several structure-dependent classes of electrical behavior in deformed nanotubes have been discovered. Bending, defects, and tube-tube contacts are shown to strongly modify transport in individual nanotubes, and to induce, in some cases, metal-semiconductor transitions. These results provide a clear interpretation of recent experimental findings and suggest avenues for their use in devices.