Metal-to-semiconductor transition in squashed armchair carbon nanotubes

We investigate electronic transport properties of the squashed armchair carbon nanotubes, using tight-binding molecular dynamics and the Green's function method. We demonstrate a metal-to-semiconductor transition while squashing the nanotubes and a general mechanism for such a transition. It is...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical review letters Vol. 90; no. 15; p. 156601
Main Authors Lu, Jun-Qiang, Wu, Jian, Duan, Wenhui, Liu, Feng, Zhu, Bang-Fen, Gu, Bing-Lin
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 18.04.2003
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Summary:We investigate electronic transport properties of the squashed armchair carbon nanotubes, using tight-binding molecular dynamics and the Green's function method. We demonstrate a metal-to-semiconductor transition while squashing the nanotubes and a general mechanism for such a transition. It is the distinction of the two sublattices in the nanotube that opens an energy gap near the Fermi energy. We show that the transition has to be achieved by a combined effect of breaking of mirror symmetry and bond formation between the flattened faces in the squashed nanotubes.
ISSN:0031-9007
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.90.156601