The effects of irradiation-induced defects and temperature upon the conducting properties of single-walled (10,10) carbon nanotubes were analyzed by using a first-principles approach. It was found that divacancies strongly modified the energy dependence of the differential conductance, and also reduced the number of contributing channels from two (ideal) to one. A small number of divacancies (5-9) generated strong Anderson localization effects and a seemingly universal curve for the resistance as a function of the number of defects. It was also shown that low temperatures (15 to 65K) were enough to smooth out the fluctuations in the conductance, without destroying the exponential dependence of the resistivity as a function of tube length.

Anderson Localization in Carbon Nanotubes: Defect Density and Temperature Effects. B.Biel, F.J.García-Vidal, A.Rubio, F.Flores: Physical Review Letters, 2005, 95[26], 266801