From Graphene to Carbon Nanotubes: Variation of the Electronic States and Nonlinear Optical Responses

From the same piece of graphene sheet, (3, 3) and (6, 0) carbon nanotube clips were obtained on the basis of the different manners of rolling. The nature of the electronic state varies differently with different manners of rolling and is significantly affected by zigzag edges. The intermediate structures formed during the rolling process were functionalized with fluorine and oxygen atoms to investigate the electronic states and nonlinear optical (NLO) responses. Passivation of the intermediate structures with fluorine neither changes the nature of electronic states and nor improves the NLO responses. In constrast, passivation with oxygen enhances the NLO properties and changes the electronic states of the structures upon passivating at the open zigzag edges. Roll with the punches: The electronic and nonlinear optical properties of the intermediates formed in the transformation of graphene sheet into (3, 3) and (6, 0) carbon nanotube clips through different rolling manners are studied. The nature of the electronic state varies differently in accordance with the different ways in which graphene is rolled and with different passivation atoms and is, furthermore, significantly affected by zigzag edges.