Electronic, transport, and magnetic properties of punctured carbon nanotubes

We use a spin-polarized tight-binding model Hamiltonian and the Landauer transport formalism to investigate the electronic transport properties of carbon nanotubes where different types of holes have been drilled through their sidewalls. We focus on zigzag edged defects with different atomic configurations since these systems enable the emergence of magnetic properties. We show that a number of hole geometries, magnetic states, and electronic spins yield attractive transport properties, such as ON/OFF switching for the electronic current, and nontrivial dependence of transmission with hole size.