Electronic transport properties of carbon nanotoroids

We investigate the electronic transport properties of carbon nanotori covalently connected to external electrodes made up of carbon nanotubes of various chiralities. The study is based on computing ballistic transport characteristics within the framework of Green's function theory using a simple π-orbital tight-binding model. The calculations focus on the effect of the relative angle made by the electrodes as they are placed at different positions along the nanoring. The conductance behavior is found to depend on the details of the atomic structure of the torus but also on the positions of the electrodes. Our findings are rationalized using an elementary quantum mechanical interference model, which reproduces well the main features of the numerical data.