Electronic structure

Abstract

This chapter is devoted to a discussion of the electronic structure of carbon and other nanotubes. It begins with a very general description of sp electronic states based on the tight-binding or Hückel approximation. This is sufficient to capture many basic electronic properties of single-walled nanotubes. This is followed by a more detailed analysis of the properties of carbon nanotubes, which is necessary when considering curvature effects, multi-walled nanotubes, bundles, etc. Although much less studied, other non-carbon nanotubes deserve also some attention: because of their ionic character boron nitride nanotubes and other mixed nanotubes offer in particular the opportunity of varying the electronic gap. This is described in a following section. The possibility of monitoring the electronic structure of carbon nanotubes as in the case of graphite, by intercalation and charge transfer are also investigated. Finally an extensive review on field emission is presented. © 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.