Symmetry, phonons and rigid-layers modes in commensurate double wall carbon nanotubes

Abstract

For translationally periodic double-wall carbon nanotubes stable configurations and full symmetry groups are determined. Using this, the phonon dispersions and eigenvectors are calculated and assigned by the complete set of conserved quantum numbers. In particular, the modes corresponding to the relative coaxial motions of the rigid layers are studied in the context of low inter-wall interaction. © EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag 2003.