Interfacing carbon nanotubes of arbitrary chiralities into linear heterojunctions

Abstract

Motivated by recent advances in synthesis and characterization of carbon nanotube (CNT) heterojunctions, we introduce a systematic approach for obtaining atomic geometries that connect two carbon nanotubes of different chiralities. Using our approach, it is straightforward to construct atomic interface geometries between two single-walled CNT's of arbitrary chiralities arranged at different orientations and angles. Our method generalizes existing approaches and is readily applicable to joining domains of graphene nanoribbons as well. As an example, we focus on linear heterojunctions, and we postulate the minimum number of simple topological defects required at the interface, and the preferred spatial arrangements, to obtain maximally linear heterojunctions given any two arbitrary chiralities. We also provide a physical picture of the defect structure of the resultant interface geometries using the results of classical force-field simulations.