Calculation of the electronic structure near the tip of a graphitic nanocone

TL;DR

This paper models the electronic structure of a graphitic nanocone near its tip, incorporating curvature effects and orbital hybridizations, with implications for electron microscopy applications.

Contribution

It introduces a new approach that includes pi-orbital hybridizations and curvature dependence to analyze electronic behavior at the nanocone tip.

Findings

Electron localization occurs at the nanocone tip.

Curvature significantly affects pi-orbital energies.

Different pentagonal defect configurations alter electronic properties.

Abstract

In the earlier works, the electronic structure of the graphitic nanocone for the long distance from the tip was investigated. Here, we investigate the behaviour of the given nanostructure near the tip where in our approach hybridizations of pi-orbitals need to be included. In this case, the curvature dependence of pi-orbital energy has to be imposed into the model. For this purpose, we use an approximation valid for small values of the corresponding parameters. We consider different numbers of the pentagonal defects in the tip. This localization of the electrons on the nanocone tip could be used as a real application in the electron microscopes.