Supervisor : Dr Mervyn Roy (mr6@le.ac.uk)

Details of Project

Carbon nanotube quantum dots are quasi-1D artificial atoms with much promise for future technology; for example as room temperature single electron transistors. 

Recently there has been a large amount of interest in the few-electron quantum states of these 1D dots. They have been probed in detail experimentally and have been studied theoretically within the effective mass approximation. However, many of the interesting features in the experiments come from atomic scale perturbations and these cannot be easily treated within effective mass theory.

In this project we will develop a new, atomic-level, calculation of the few-electron quantum states of a nanotube dot. We will use the theory to investigate the effect on the quantum states of defects, charged impurities, and magnetic impurities.

The results of the calculation will be used to understand key features in low temperature Coulomb blockade and spin blockade experiments.