An oscillator in a carbon peapod controllable by an external electric field: a moleculardynamics study

Abstract

We investigate the peapod structure ofC59N+@(10, 10) single-walled carbon nanotubes by simulation, and discover that the ball initial velocitycould be controlled by the external impulse electric field, then becoming an oscillator, ofwhich the period could be tuned in a relatively large range of 80–18 ps by adjusting the ballmotion in the initial stage. The SWNT length could also be used to tune the period of theoscillator. Based on these results, two potential devices, controllable period and constantperiod systems are proposed. For the first device, the ball motion is adjusted stepby step and the period decreases from 80–100 ps to 18–20 ps or increases from18–20 ps to 80–100 ps. For the second one, a relatively high constant period within20–25 ps could be controlled by applying a much longer period signal generator(1 ns) from the external electric field, indicating a robust signal magnification.