Investigations were made of the deformations and pull-in charges of cantilever and doubly clamped carbon nanotubes with different geometries using molecular dynamics simulation technique. The well-known AIREBO potential for the covalent bonds between carbon atoms, Lennar-Jones potential for the vdW interaction and the Coulomb potential for electrostatic actuation were employed to model the nano electromechanical system. The results reveal that longer carbon nanotubes with smaller diameters have smaller pull-in charges in comparison with shorter carbon nanotubes possessing larger diameters. Furthermore, the pull-in charges of the doubly clamped carbon nanotubes were higher than the pull-in charges of the cantilevered carbon nanotubes. Another important matter discussed here was the effect of Stone-Wales defects on the pull-in charges. The results showed the reduction of the pull-in charges in the presence of Stone-Wales defects in the nano system.

Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Pull-In Phenomena in Carbon Nanotubes with Stone-Wales Defects. M.M.S.Fakhrabadi, P.K.Khorasani, A.Rastgoo, M.T.Ahmadian: Solid State Communications, 2013, 157, 38-44