Electronics Properties of Single-Walled Twisted Carbon Nanotubes

Electronic properties are calculated and simulited by using density functional theory based on the nonequilibrium Green's function when a zigzag single-wall carbon nanotube (SCNTs) is twisted. We found that the twist of the single-wall carbon nanotube decreases their transmission function in certain energy ranges but some peaks are higher than unit despite twisting strongly affects the electronic structure of SCNT. The transmission peaks reduces gradually with twisting angle increasing. In addition, SCNT develops a Fermi-level which initially scales linearly with twisting angle and then reaches a constant value, the energy band gaps decrease with the twisting angles. All results indicate that SCNTs have lower electronic transport performance when the twisting angle increases, especially for large twisting angles.