TY - JOUR

T1 - Carbon Nanotube Archimedes Screws

AU - Oroszlany, Laszlo

AU - Zolyomi, Viktor

AU - Lambert, Colin J.

PY - 2010/12/1

Y1 - 2010/12/1

N2 - Recently, nanomechanical devices composed of a long stationary inner carbon nanotube and a shorter, slowly rotating outer tube have been fabricated. In this paper, we study the possibility of using such devices as nanoscale transducers of motion into electricity. When the outer tube is chiral, we show that such devices act like quantum Archimedes screws, which utilize mechanical energy to pump electrons between reservoirs. We calculate the pumped charge from one end of the inner tube to the other, driven by the rotation of a chiral outer nanotube. We show that the pumped charge can be greater than one electron per 360° rotation, and consequently, such a device operating with a rotational frequency of 10 MHz, for example, would deliver a current of ≈1 pAmp.

AB - Recently, nanomechanical devices composed of a long stationary inner carbon nanotube and a shorter, slowly rotating outer tube have been fabricated. In this paper, we study the possibility of using such devices as nanoscale transducers of motion into electricity. When the outer tube is chiral, we show that such devices act like quantum Archimedes screws, which utilize mechanical energy to pump electrons between reservoirs. We calculate the pumped charge from one end of the inner tube to the other, driven by the rotation of a chiral outer nanotube. We show that the pumped charge can be greater than one electron per 360° rotation, and consequently, such a device operating with a rotational frequency of 10 MHz, for example, would deliver a current of ≈1 pAmp.

KW - carbon nanotubes

KW - multiwalled carbon nanotubes

KW - NEMS

KW - adiabatic quantum pumps

KW - rotational actuators

U2 - 10.1021/nn1020242

DO - 10.1021/nn1020242

M3 - Journal article

VL - 4

SP - 7363

EP - 7366

JO - ACS Nano

JF - ACS Nano

SN - 1936-0851

IS - 12

ER -