First-principles band structures of armchair nanotubes

Abstract

Recent work by Thess et al. suggests that (10,10) carbon nanotubes with diameters of 1.38 nm have been observed with high conductivities. Other experimental results have directly measured the density of states of single-wall carbon nanotubes with diameters in the range 1-1.5 nm. Herein we examine the expected electronic properties of armchair single-wall nanotubes with diameters in this range, and present first-principles local-density functional results for band structure and density of states of these SWNTs. We find our results support the validity of the simple graphene sheet model, and are in close agreement with experimental measurements of the density of states of these materials.