Chen Yung-Fu, Dirks Travis, Al-Zoubi Gassem, Birge Norman O, Mason Nadya
Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801-2902, USA.
Phys Rev Lett. 2009 Jan 23;102(3):036804. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.036804.
We report measurements of the nonequilibrium electron energy distribution in carbon nanotubes. Using tunneling spectroscopy via a superconducting probe, we study the shape of the local electron distribution functions, and hence energy relaxation rates, in nanotubes that have bias voltages applied between their ends. At low temperatures, electrons interact weakly in nanotubes of a few microns channel length, independent of end-to-end-conductance values. Surprisingly, the energy relaxation rate can increase substantially when the temperature is raised to only 1.5 K.
