Resistance of copper nanowires and comparison with carbon nanotube bundles for interconnect applications using first principles calculations

We have studied the electronic properties and the band structure of copper nanowires for various diameters using first principles density functional methods and a supercell approach. The resistances of copper nanowires were computed on the basis of the Landauer formalism and compared with those obtained from an empirical approach. The fundamental resistances of small copper nanowires (~60 nm diameter) are found to be larger than those predicted by Ohm's law. In parallel, we have computed the fundamental resistances for bundles of single walled carbon nanotubes and compared them with that of a single copper wire of similar dimensions. We find that the resistance of carbon nanotube bundles is smaller than that of the copper wires for dimensions below 60 nm. Our results are discussed in light of recent experiments.