Trans-phonon effects in ultrafast nano-devices

TL;DR

This paper introduces the transphonon effects in carbon nanotube devices, caused by phonon resonance leading to increased drag and phonon barriers, which can be tuned by geometry and chirality.

Contribution

It reports the discovery of transphonon effects in CNT devices and explains their dependence on geometric and chirality parameters.

Findings

Transphonon effects cause a surge in drag force at critical velocities.

Multiple phonon barriers are encountered during sliding.

Transphonon effects can be tuned via geometry and chirality.

Abstract

We report a novel phenomenon in carbon nanotube (CNT) based devices, the transphonon effects, which resemble the transonic effects in aerodynamics. It is caused by dissipative resonance of nanotube phonons similar to the radial breathing mode, and subsequent drastic surge of the dragging force on the sliding tube, and multiple phonon barriers are encountered as the intertube sliding velocity reaches critical values. It is found that the transphonon effects can be tuned by applying geometric constraints or varying chirality combinations of the nanotubes.