Research on the tip-carbon nanotube interaction model using molecular dynamics simulation

Abstract

In atomic force microscopy (AFM) based carbon nanotubes (CNTs) manipulation, the interaction force between AFM tip and CNT has a significant effect on the operation results. In this paper, we propose to simulate the contact model between AFM tip and carbon nanotube by using molecular dynamics simulation. In the proposed framework, different contact process (under different tip shapes, tip sizes, and contact positions) are also studied. The effectiveness of this proposed simulation is verified by comparing the simulation result with the literature result. This study explores atomic scale mechanical changes in the AFM tip-CNT interaction, providing a more accurate mechanical basis for AFM based CNT manipulation.