Transport and field-emission properties of carbon nanotubes

Using a local pseudopotential for the representation of the carbon atoms and a transfer-matrix technique for the resolution of the Schrodinger equation, we address the transport properties of armchair carbon nanotubes. In particular we show that the conductance of these tubes is strongly affected by reflections at the metallic contacts, these reflections being responsible for a periodic modulation of the conductance. We also simulate field emission from bundles of open/closed metallic (5,5) nanotubes, which consist of three and six identical structures placed at the corners of equilateral triangles.