TCB Publications - Abstract

TCB Publications - Abstract

Deyu Lu, Yan Li, Umberto Ravaioli, and Klaus Schulten. Ion-nanotube terahertz oscillator. Physical Review Letters, 95:246801, 2005. (4 pages). (PMC: 2492829)

LU2005A We report the intriguing dynamics of a potassium ion interacting with a $16$ Å carbon nanotube. The ion induces a strong dielectric response in the nanotube wall that can be described through a self-consistent tight-binding method. The polarization of the nanotube was found to play a critical role in the ion-nanotube interaction, which exhibits a low access barrier of only $1.05$ kcal/mol and a deep, attractive well with a depth of about $30$ kcal/mol. An ion bound in the nanotube is predicted to oscillate at a frequency of about 0.4 terahertz, dragging the electrons of the nanotube along. Besides its appealing nature in low-dimensional physics, such nano-oscillator may serve as a room temperature terahertz wave detector.

Request Full Text

Request Paper

Full Name
Email Address
Institution
Type the number eight in the box