Superconductivity in Thin Films of Boron-Doped Carbon Nanotubes

Superconductivity in carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is attracting considerable attention. However, its correlation with carrier doping has not been reported. We report on the Meissner effect found in thin films consisting of assembled boron (B)-doped single-walled CNTs (B-SWNTs). We find that only B-SWNT films consisting of low boron concentration leads to evident Meissner effect with Tc=12 K and also that a highly homogeneous ensemble of the B-SWNTs is crucial. The first-principles electronic-structure study of the B-SWNTs strongly supports these results.