Abstract
The curvature effects in carbon nanotubes are studied analytically as a function of chirality. The orbitals are found to be significantly rehybridized in all tubes, so that they are never normal to the tubes’ surface. This results in a curvature induced gap in the electronic band structure, which turns out to be larger than previous estimates. The tilting of the orbitals should be observable by atomic resolution scanning tunneling microscopy measurements.
- Received 22 February 2001
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.64.113402
©2001 American Physical Society