Structural and electrical properties of selenium nanotubes

Abstract The electronic structure calculations are systematically carried out within the density functional formalism for understanding the structural and electronic properties of a number of selenium nanotubes. In particular, single walled selenium nanotubes (achiral) are studied in this work. Our investigations reveal that the lower diameter nanotubes are unstable. Beyond certain diameter, the tubes retain their tubular structure and they show metallic property. Furthermore, work-functions of these tubes are found to depend on their diameters and differ from that of the bulk selenium surface.