Bistability of C60 Fullerene in Partially Side-Opened Carbon Nanopeapod.

Abstract

Partially side-opened carbon nanopeapods show great potential for various applications. Here, we investigated the schematics and energetics of a nonvolatile nanomemory element, based on a C60 fullerene encapsulated in a partially opened carbon nanopeapod, using empirical interatomic interaction potential functions. Bistability of the van der Waals potential energy is achieved from the positional change of the encapsulated C60 fullerene, and the encapsulated C60 fullerene can shuttle between bistable positions, under alternatively applied force fields. Since the C60 fullerene can retain its position without recharging, the proposed system can operate as a nonvolatile memory device. These results can be useful for the understanding of new molecular machines.