Drastic change of phase interference by small diffusion of heavy-mass electrode atoms in carbon nanotubes and phase switching device

2001 
We slightly diffuse atoms of electrode materials into one end of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs), grown using nanoporous alumina membranes. Diffusion of the light-mass materials (carbon and aluminum) lead to weak localization in Altshuler–Aronov–Spivak oscillation, consistent with past reports. In contrast, we find that diffusion of heavy-mass materials (gold and platinum) at the volume ratio of only about 5% change this weak localization to antilocalization. It is understood by a drastic change of the phase interference caused by the injection of spin-flipped electrons due to spin–orbit interaction in the diffusion region, in the entire part of the MWNTs. We also propose an electron-wave phase switching circuit using this effect.
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