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

Influencing Range of Vacancy Defects in Zigzag Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes. L.Yu-Pin, T.Li-Gan, L.Ming-Hsien, L.Feng-Yin: Chinese Physics B, 2010, 19[2], 027102