Wave Propagation and Scattering in Deformed Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation is pursued to study the propagation and scattering of longitudinal sinusoidal and humped waves in SWCNTs. For SWCNTs with a smooth bend, the wave experiences no barrier in propagation when its wavelength ( ) is comparable to or smaller than the bending radius. For buckled SWCNTs, reflection is observed for all bending angles ( ). The transmission coefficient decreases to about 10% when = 90 . An effective radius of bending is estimated to be 0.84 nm from the continuum modeling, which is far below the simulated wavelengths. Theoretical analysis concludes that a strong reflection occurs when R0. The phonon wavelength is typically in the range of 1–100 nm for SWCNTs, which explains the robustness of heat conduction in wavy SWCNTs.