Vibration of an embedded multiwall carbon nanotube

This paper studies resonant frequencies and the associated vibrational modes of an individual multiwall carbon nanotube embedded in an elastic medium. The analysis is based on a multiple-elastic beam model [Phys. Rev. B. 62 (2000) 16962], which considers intertube radial displacements and the related internal degrees of freedom. New intertube resonant frequencies and the associated non-coaxial vibrational modes are calculated. The results show that non-coaxial intertube resonance will be excited at the higher resonant frequencies of multiwall carbon nanotubes, and thus the latter does not keep the otherwise concentric structure at ultrahigh frequencies. In particular, because non-coaxial intertube vibration will distort the concentric geometry of the multiwall carbon nanotubes, it could significantly affect some of their important physical (such as electronic and optical) properties. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.