Discrete Nonlinear Breathing Modes in Carbon Nanotubes

TL;DR

This paper predicts the existence of localized nonlinear oscillations called discrete breathers in carbon nanotubes, identifying different types based on chirality and their spectral properties.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of discrete breathers in carbon nanotubes and characterizes their types and spectral conditions based on nanotube chirality.

Findings

Three types of breathers in (m,0) nanotubes: longitudinal, radial, twisting.

Twisting breathers (twistons) are nonradiating and exist in spectral gaps.

Radial breathers in (m,m) nanotubes occur in a narrow spectral range.

Abstract

We study large-amplitude oscillations of carbon nanotubes with chiralities $(m,0)$ and $(m,m)$ and predict the existence of localized nonlinear modes in the form of {\em discrete breathers}. In nanotubes with the index $(m,0)$ {\em three types} of localized modes can exist, namely longitudinal, radial, and twisting breathers; however only the twisting breathers, or {\em twistons}, are nonradiating nonlinear modes which exist in the frequency gaps of the linear spectrum. Geometry of carbon nanotubes with the index $(m,m)$ allows only the existence of broad radial breathers in a narrow spectral range.