Direct Observation of Molecular Orbital at Carbon Nanotube End

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Published 16 February 2007 Copyright (c) 2007 The Japan Society of Applied Physics
, , Citation Masayuki Furuhashi and Tadahiro Komeda 2007 Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 46 L161 DOI 10.1143/JJAP.46.L161

This article is corrected by 2008 Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 47 4851

1347-4065/46/3L/L161

Abstract

We report the appearance of superstructures in the topological images of scanning tunneling microscopy of single wall carbon nanotubes in the regions near the cap. These structures are localized with 6–7 nm from nanotubes ends and provide wavy pattern parallel to the armchair direction. Our molecular orbital calculation indicates that the superstructure shows a good agreement with calculated lowest unoccupied molecular orbital state. We consider the observed structures are the appearance of real (or imaginary) part of the Bloch state, which occurs as the result of the quantum interference between forward and backward waves. This suggests that the scattering of wave vector from k to -k occurs in two-dimensional manner at the end of the tube.

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10.1143/JJAP.46.L161