Tayloring energy levels with curvature ? An illustration of Da Costa formalism

Abstract

Nanotubes are generally not perfectly straight cylinders and the local curvature can influence transport properties. As shown by da Costa [1], charged particles moving on a curved surface experience an effective potential which modifies their dynamics. In this paper, we solve a one-electron Schrödinger equation in a distorted nanotube with open boundary conditions. We find that the deformations may open bandgaps suggesting their use in the design of nanotube- based electronic devices.