The effect of a transverse electric field on the electronic properties of an armchair carbon nanoscroll

Abstract

In this work, we use the tight-binding model to study the low-energy electronic properties of carbon nanoscrolls subject to the influences of a transverse electric field. A carbon nanoscroll can be considered as an open-ended spirally wrapped graphene nanoribbon. The inter-wall interactions will alter the subband curvature, create additional band-edge states, modify the subband spacing or energy gap, and separate the partial flat bands. Furthermore, the energy band symmetry about the Fermi level is lifted by such interactions. The truncated Archimedean spiral ρ = r a θ +r is used to describe the spiral structures of carbon nanoscrolls. The energy gap is found to oscillate significantly with r, and exhibits complete energy gap modulations. With the inclusion of a transverse electric field, the band structures are further altered. Inter-wall hoppings will cause electron transfers between different atoms leading to distortions of the electron wavefunctions. The main features of the energy dispersions are directly reflected in the density of states. The numbers, heights, and energies of the density of states peaks are dependent on the electric field strength.