Electronic structure and applications of carbon nanotubes

Pavel N. D’yachkov (Quantum Chemistry Laboratory Kurnakov Institute for General and Inorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow)

1. What is a Carbon Nanotube?

Nanotubes = Giant molecules made of sheets of atoms, coaxially arranged in a cylindrical shape. Geometry of nanotube can be determined by its diameter and chirality vector.

2. Tight Binding p Electron Theory for the Nanotubes.

Analysis of nanotube chiralities shows the (n, m) nanotube will be metallic, if n-m=3k (where n and m are chirality indices while k is integer). Otherwise, they are semiconducting.

3. Experimental Data on the Nanotube Properties.

Carbon nanotube can be metallic, semiconductor, quantum conductor and superconductor. The great electron orbital magnetic moment and spin-orbit coupling are detected in nanotubes.

4. Nanotube based Devices.

A number of examples: nanotransistor, nanodiode, chemical sensors, logic gates, emission devices, nanoradio, nanotube computer, nanoradio.

5. Development of Linear Augmented Cylindrical Wave Method for Nanotubes at IGIC

Cylindrical muffin-tin (MT) potential. Theoretical background. Electronic structure of armchair- and zigzag-type single-wall nanotubes, double-wall nanotubes, chiral nanotubes, and nanotubes with substitutional impurities. Relativistic version of LACW method.

6. Conclusions