Thermally driven large-amplitude fluctuations in carbon-nanotube-based devices: Molecular dynamics simulations

Abstract

Thermally driven devices based on double-walled carbon nanotubes are proposed in this paper. Molecular dynamics simulations show that large-amplitude axial oscillation can be effectively excited for the local van der Waals potential barrier, Vloc, accessible by the thermal fluctuation. Besides the axial oscillation, the angular and transverse motion are observed and discussed. It is further found that severe structure distortion can terribly disturb the motion at high temperature. The great intertube mobility observed here implies the possibility of building a nanoscale Brownian machine or molecular transport channel, with broad applications. © 2007 The American Physical Society.