Electronic and optical properties of double-walled armchair carbon nanotubes

Magnetoelectronic structures of double-walled armchair carbon nanotubes are calculated according to the tight-binding model. Their features are dominated by the intertube interactions, the symmetric configurations, the magnetic flux, and the Zeeman splitting. The drastic changes of the low energy states, such as energy dispersion, wave function, and Fermi level, which also rely on the different symmetries, are caused by the intertube interactions. The magnetic flux could change linear bands into parabolic bands, destroy state degeneracy, open an energy gap, and shift Fermi level. The magnetic flux and the intertube interactions, however, compete with each other in the metallic or semiconducting behavior. The Zeeman splitting would suppress the metal-semiconductor transition while the opposite is true of the magnetic flux. The main characteristics of energy bands are directly reflected in the magneto-optical absorption spectra. The different symmetric configurations can be distinguished by the absorption peaks, and the threshold absorption frequency is not identical with the energy gap. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.