Deformation of doubly-clamped single-walled carbon nanotubes in an electrostatic field

TL;DR

This study uses molecular simulations to explore how electrostatic fields deform doubly-clamped single-walled carbon nanotubes, revealing dependencies on field strength, tube length, and radius, with metallic nanotubes being more sensitive.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the electrostatic deformation behavior of carbon nanotubes, highlighting the effects of tube properties and electric field orientation.

Findings

Deformation depends on field strength and tube length.

Metallic nanotubes are more sensitive to electric fields.

Center-oriented transverse fields induce more efficient bending.

Abstract

In this letter, we demonstrate a strong dependence of the electrostatic deformation of doubly-clamped single-walled carbon nanotubes on both the field strength and the tube length, using molecular simulations. Metallic nanotubes are found to be more sensitive to an electric field than semiconducting ones of the same size. For a given electric field, the induced deformation increases with tube length but decreases with tube radius. Furthermore, it is found that nanotubes can be more efficiently bent in a center-oriented transverse electric field.