System of metastable volume-localized electronic states in positively charged semiconductor single-wall carbon nanotubes

Abstract

The volume-localized electronic states (SAMOs) with a maximum of their electron wave functions located in the cavity of nanomaterials have been experimentally and theoretically demonstrated in a fullerene. The existence of SAMOs in single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) was also predicted theoretically. In the present paper, these volume states in semiconductor SWCNTs were theoretically investigated using numerical quantum modeling based on density functional theory (DFT). It is shown that the well appears in the center of the tube, whose depth increases with increasing positive charge, since the total potential of a positively charged structure can be represented as the sum of the Coulomb potential and the potential of the atoms of the tube wall. In this context, in addition to the well-studied surface-localized states, states localized in the volume of the cylinder also occur. Using the components of the electric transition dipole moment, the lifetime of the volume states was preliminarily estimated in comparison to the lifetime of the ordinary surface states.