Electric Conductivity of Phosphorus Nanowires

We present the structures and electrical transport properties of nanowires made from different strands of phosphorus chains encapsulated in carbon nanotubes. Optimized by density function theory, our results indicate that the conductance spectra reveal an oscillation dependence on the size of wires. It can be seen from the density of states and current-voltage curves that the structure of nanowires affects their properties greatly. Among them, the DNA-like double-helical phosphorus nanowire exhibits the distinct characteristic of an approximately linear I-V relationship and has a higher conductance than others. The transport properties of phosphorus nanowires are highly correlated with their microstructures.