Atomic structures and mechanical properties of single-crystal GaN nanotubes

An approach is proposed to theoretically construct a realistic single-crystal GaN nanotube at atomic scale. The generated atomic structures of the single-crystal GaN nanotubes match the structural aspects from experiment very well. Our energetic calculations show that a single-crystal GaN-nanotube with [100]-oriented lateral facets is more stable than that with [110]-oriented lateral facets, when they have around the same wall thickness. For a specified orientation of the lateral facets on the single-crystal GaN nanotubes, the energetic stabilities of the tubes obey a P rule, in which P is the ratio of the number of four-coordinated atoms to the number of three-coordinated atoms. Furthermore, the Young's modulus of the considered GaN nanotubes decrease with increasing the ratio of the number of bulk atoms to the number of surface atoms in each type of tube. Our calculations and analysis demonstrate that the surface effect of a single-crystal nanotube enhances its Young's modulus significantly.