Electronic transport through carbon nanotubes -- effects of structural deformation and tube chirality

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Atomistic simulations using a combination of classical forcefield and Density-Functional-Theory (DFT) show that carbon atoms remain essentially sp2 coordinated in either bent tubes or tubes pushed by an atomically sharp AFM tip. Subsequent Green's-function-based transport calculations reveal that for armchair tubes there is no significant drop in conductance, while for zigzag tubes the conductance can drop by several orders of magnitude in AFM-pushed tubes. The effect can be attributed to simple stretching of the tube under tip deformation, which opens up an energy gap at the Fermi surface.