Chiral single-wall gold nanotubes

Abstract

Based on first-principles calculations we show that gold atoms can form both free-standing and tip-suspended chiral single-wall nanotubes composed of helical atomic strands. Free-standing, infinite (5,5) tube is found to be energetically the most favorable. While energetically less favorable, the experimentally observed (5,3) tube stretching between two tips corresponds to a local minimum in the string tension. Similarly, the (4,3) tube is predicted as a favorable structure yet to be observed experimentally. Analysis of band structure, charge density, and quantum ballistic conductance suggests that the current on these wires is less chiral than expected, and there is no direct correlation between the numbers of conduction channels and helical strands.

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References in corpus (5)

• Density functional method for nonequilibrium electron transport
• Formation and manipulation of a metallic wire of single gold atoms
• Non-Crystalline Structures of Ultra-Thin Unsupported Nanowires
• Stiff monatomic gold wires with a spinning zigzag geometry
• Metal nanoring and tube formation on carbon nanotubes

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Two-Stage Formation Model and Helicity of Gold Nanowires
• Geometrical and electronic structures of the (5, 3) single-walled gold nanotube from first-principles calculations
• Scaling of the conductance in gold nanotubes
• Chiral currents in gold nanotubes
• Domain boundary formation in helical multishell gold nanowire
• Adsorbate and defect effects on electronic and transport properties of gold nanotubes
• Spin-orbit interaction in Au structures of various dimensionalities
• Oscillating chiral currents in nanotubes: a route to nanoscale magnetic test tubes
• Charge Transport Behavior of 1D Gold Chiral Nanojunctions
• Species Fractionation in Atomic Chains from Mechanically Stretched Alloys