Negative Differential Resistance in Nanotube Devices

Carbon nanotube junctions are predicted to exhibit negative differential resistance, with very high peak-to-valley current ratios even at room temperature. We treat both nanotube $p-n$ junctions and undoped metal-nanotube-metal junctions, calculating quantum transport through the self-consistent potential within a tight-binding approximation. The undoped junctions in particular may be suitable for device integration.