Intrinsic Energy Loss Mechanisms in a Cantilevered Carbon Nanotube Beam Oscillator

Classical molecular dynamics is applied to study the energy dissipation (the $Q$ factor) of the cantilever-type beam oscillators of single wall and double-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The study finds that the $Q$ factor of the CNT beam oscillator varies with the temperature $T$ following the $1/T^{0.36}$ dependence. For single wall CNT, the $Q$ factor drops from $2\times {10}^5$ at 0.05 K to $1.5\times {10}^3$ at 293 K. The study further reveals that the weak interlayer binding strength and the interlayer commensurance significantly increases the energy dissipation in the double-walled CNT oscillator.

Figure 1

A schematic showing a single wall carbon nanotube beam oscillator for modeling.

Figure 2

The external potential energy $E_{\mathrm{e}\mathrm{x}\mathrm{t}}$ versus time for the oscillation of a (5, 5) single wall carbon nanotube at an initial temperature of 8 K. The insets show the oscillation amplitude at the free end of the carbon nanotube versus time in the time interval of 0–10 ps and 290–300 ps.

Figure 3

(a) The internal energy of the nanotube at the peak of its oscillation versus time from the same calculation shown in Fig. 2. (b) The quality factor $Q$ versus temperature dependence for a (5, 5) single wall carbon nanotube.

Figure 4

The external potential energy $E_{\mathrm{e}\mathrm{x}\mathrm{t}}$ versus time for the oscillations of a $(5,5)/(18,0)$ double-walled carbon nanotube (a), and a $(5,5)/(10,10)$ double-walled carbon nanotube (b), at an initial temperature of 8 K.