Electromagnetic resonances of individual single-walled carbon nanotubes with realistic shapes: A characteristic modes approach

Published

November 9, 2015

Author(s)

Ahmed M. Hassan, Luis F. Vargas Lara, Jack Douglas, Edward Garboczi

Abstract

In composites, Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) are rarely perfectly straight and they usually exhibit complex shapes. In this paper, we employ the Method of Moments formulation for Arbitrary Thin Wires to study the electromagnetic scattering characteristics of CNTs with realistic shapes. More than eight hundred different CNT shapes were simulated in this work. These shapes were generated using a coarse-grained molecular dynamics model calibrated using realistic CNT shapes encountered experimentally. The analysis shows that the shape and orientation of CNTs has a strong effect on the scattered electromagnetic response. We used the Theory of the Characteristic Modes (TCM) to explain this dependence of the scattered electromagnetic waves on the shape of the CNT. The TCM shows fundamental differences between the behavior of characteristic modes in CNTs and their behavior in perfectly conducting wires with the same shapes and dimensions. Using these differences, we developed simplified but highly accurate formulas that link the shapes of the CNTs to the resonances in their total extinction coefficient spectrum. These formulations have the potential to be the basis for advancing the non-destructive evaluation of CNT composites using electromagnetic waves as well as the development of novel CNT electromagnetic systems and devices.

Citation

IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation

Volume

64

Issue

7

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1109/TAP.2016.2526046

Local Download

Keywords

carbon nanotubes, electromagnetic resonances, scattering, shape, method of moments, arbitrary thin wires, theory of characteristic modes, composites, non-destructive evaluation

Citation

Hassan, A. , Vargas Lara, L. , Douglas, J. and Garboczi, E. (2015), Electromagnetic resonances of individual single-walled carbon nanotubes with realistic shapes: A characteristic modes approach, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, [online], https://doi.org/10.1109/TAP.2016.2526046, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=918247 (Accessed October 2, 2025)