Curvature-induced Symmetry Lowering and Anomalous Dispersion of Phonons in Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

ABSTRACTHere we report rich and new resonant Raman spectral features for several sub-nanometer diameter single wall carbon nanotubes (sub-nm SWNTs) samples grown using chemical vapor deposition technique operating at different temperatures. We find that the high curvature in sub-nm SWNTs leads to (i) an unusual S-like dispersion of the G‑band frequency due to perturbations caused by the strong electron-phonon coupling, and (ii) an activation of diameter-selective intermediate frequency modes that are as intense as the radial breathing modes (RBMs). Furthermore, an analytical approach which includes the effects of curvature into the overlap integral and the energy gap between the van Hove singularities is discussed. Lastly, we show that the phonon spectra for sub-nm SWNTs obtained from the molecular dynamic simulations which employs a curvature-dependent force field concur with our experimental observations.