Polaron Induced Deformations in Carbon Nanotubes

TL;DR

This paper models the elastic deformations caused by self-trapped electronic states in carbon nanotubes, revealing complex deformation patterns that depend on chirality, with potential applications in nano-mechanical devices.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive two-field model to compute full elastic deformations and lengths of polarons in carbon nanotubes of various chiralities for the first time.

Findings

Deformations are highly non monotonic in chiral angle.

Polaron length is independent of chiral angle.

Potential use in electrically or optically driven nano-actuators.

Abstract

We compute for the first time full elastic deformations, as well as length, of self-trapped electronic states in carbon nanotubes of general radius and chirality, within the unifying framework of a recently introduced two field model for electromechanics of carbon nano-structures. We find that deformations are highly non monotonic in the chiral angle, whereas the length of the polaron is not. Applications include nano-mechanical devices as electrically or optically driven nano-actuators.