931 research outputs found
Electronic structure of an electron on the gyroid surface, a helical labyrinth
Previously reported formulation for electrons on curved periodic surfaces is
used to analyze the band structure of an electron bound on the gyroid surface
(the only triply-periodic minimal surface that has screw axes). We find that an
effect of the helical structure appears as the bands multiply sticking together
on the Brillouin zone boundaries. We elaborate how the band sticking is lifted
when the helical and inversion symmetries of the structure are degraded. We
find from this that the symmetries give rise to prominent peaks in the density
of states.Comment: RevTeX, 4 pages, 6 figure
Identification of Electron Donor States in N-doped Carbon Nanotubes
Nitrogen doped carbon nanotubes have been synthesized using pyrolysis and
characterized by Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy and transmission electron
microscopy. The doped nanotubes are all metallic and exhibit strong electron
donor states near the Fermi level. Using tight-binding and ab initio
calculations, we observe that pyridine-like N structures are responsible for
the metallic behavior and the prominent features near the Fermi level. These
electron rich structures are the first example of n-type nanotubes, which could
pave the way to real molecular hetero-junction devices.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, revtex, submitted to PR
The electro-structural behaviour of yarn-like carbon nanotube fibres immersed in organic liquids.
Yarn-like carbon nanotube (CNT) fibres are a hierarchically-structured material with a variety of promising applications such as high performance composites, sensors and actuators, smart textiles, and energy storage and transmission. However, in order to fully realize these possibilities, a more detailed understanding of their interactions with the environment is required. In this work, we describe a simplified representation of the hierarchical structure of the fibres from which several mathematical models are constructed to explain electro-structural interactions of fibres with organic liquids. A balance between the elastic and surface energies of the CNT bundle network in different media allows the determination of the maximum lengths that open junctions can sustain before collapsing to minimize the surface energy. This characteristic length correlates well with the increase of fibre resistance upon immersion in organic liquids. We also study the effect of charge accumulation in open interbundle junctions and derive expressions to describe experimental data on the non-ohmic electrical behaviour of fibres immersed in polar liquids. Our analyses suggest that the non-ohmic behaviour is caused by progressively shorter junctions collapsing as the voltage is increased. Since our models are not based on any property unique to carbon nanotubes, they should also be useful to describe other hierarchical structures
Electronic structure of periodic curved surfaces -- continuous surface versus graphitic sponge
We investigate the band structure of electrons bound on periodic curved
surfaces. We have formulated Schr\"{o}dinger's equation with the Weierstrass
representation when the surface is minimal, which is numerically solved. Bands
and the Bloch wavefunctions are basically determined by the way in which the
``pipes'' are connected into a network, where the Bonnet(conformal)-transformed
surfaces have related electronic strucutres. We then examine, as a realisation
of periodic surfaces, the tight-binding model for atomic networks
(``sponges''), where the low-energy spectrum coincides with those for
continuous curved surfaces.Comment: 4 page
Electronic properties of curved graphene sheets
A model is proposed to study the electronic structure of slightly curved
graphene sheets with an arbitrary number of pentagon-heptagon pairs and
Stone-Wales defects based on a cosmological analogy. The disorder induced by
curvature produces characteristic patterns in the local density of states that
can be observed in scanning tunnel and transmission electron microscopy.Comment: Corrected versio
Formation of off-centered double-walled carbon nanotubes exhibiting wide interlayer spacing from bi-cables
ArticleChemical Physics Letters. 432(1-3):240-244 (2006)journal articl
Quantum Particles Constrained on Cylindrical Surfaces with Non-constant Diameter
We present a theoretical formulation of the one-electron problem constrained
on the surface of a cylindrical tubule with varying diameter. Because of the
cylindrical symmetry, we may reduce the problem to a one-dimensional equation
for each angular momentum quantum number along the cylindrical axis. The
geometrical properties of the surface determine the electronic structures
through the geometry dependent term in the equation. Magnetic fields parallel
to the axis can readily be incorporated. Our formulation is applied to simple
examples such as the catenoid and the sinusoidal tubules. The existence of
bound states as well as the band structures, which are induced geometrically,
for these surfaces are shown. To show that the electronic structures can be
altered significantly by applying a magnetic field, Aharonov-Bohm effects in
these examples are demonstrated.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, submitted to J. Phys. Soc. Jp
Strain Modulated Superlattices in Graphene
Strain engineering of graphene takes advantage of one of the most dramatic
responses of Dirac electrons enabling their manipulation via strain-induced
pseudo-magnetic fields. Numerous theoretically proposed devices, such as
resonant cavities and valley filters, as well as novel phenomena, such as snake
states, could potentially be enabled via this effect. These proposals, however,
require strong, spatially oscillating magnetic fields while to date only the
generation and effects of pseudo-gauge fields which vary at a length scale much
larger than the magnetic length have been reported. Here we create a periodic
pseudo-gauge field profile using periodic strain that varies at the length
scale comparable to the magnetic length and study its effects on Dirac
electrons. A periodic strain profile is achieved by pulling on graphene with
extreme (>10%) strain and forming nanoscale ripples, akin to a plastic wrap
pulled taut at its edges. Combining scanning tunneling microscopy and atomistic
calculations, we find that spatially oscillating strain results in a new
quantization different from the familiar Landau quantization observed in
previous studies. We also find that graphene ripples are characterized by large
variations in carbon-carbon bond length, directly impacting the electronic
coupling between atoms, which within a single ripple can be as different as in
two different materials. The result is a single graphene sheet that effectively
acts as an electronic superlattice. Our results thus also establish a novel
approach to synthesize an effective 2D lateral heterostructure - by periodic
modulation of lattice strain.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures and supplementary informatio
'Buckypaper' from coaxial nanotubes
ArticleNature. 433(7025):476 (2005)journal articl
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