The range of influence a vacancy defect in a zig-zag single-walled nanotube was characterized with both structural deformation and variation in band structure. This work proposed a microscopic explanation relating the structural deformation to the band structure variation. With an increasing defect density, the nanotubes became oblate and the energy gap between the deep localized gap state and the conducting band minimum state decreased. Theoretical results shed some light on the local energy gap engineering via vacancy density for future potential applications.

Influencing Range of Vacancy Defects in Zig-Zag Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes. Y.P.Luo, L.G.Tien, M.H.Lee, F.Y.Li: Chinese Physics B, 2010, 19[2], 027102